Health Innovation East, the health innovation adoption experts in the East of England, is partnering with LinkGevity to advance the translation of cutting-edge research to develop therapeutics that target unmet medical needs. Building on the UK’s life science prowess, translational research leverages the government’s investment in the early-stage research and allows local populations to realise the health and wealth benefits of moving from the ‘[lab] bench to bedside’.
Cambridge University’s Office for Translational Research describes translational research as ‘the process of applying ideas, insights and discoveries generated through scientific inquiry to the treatment or prevention of human disease’. The notion of ‘[lab] bench to bedside’ underpins the concept of translational medicine, i.e. from research to patient care.
Collaboration between implementation experts and innovative companies, facilitated by dynamic research environments such as the Babraham Research Campus, accelerates the development of effective new treatments towards clinical use. Strategic partnerships like these are foundational to advancing evidence-backed innovation into practical healthcare solutions that the NHS can adopt with confidence.
At Health Innovation East, our team includes healthcare professionals, specialist technologists and commercial advisors, working to put evidence-backed solutions into practice – such as therapeutics that are shown to deliver clinical benefits. Our approach helps align new treatments and technologies with NHS priorities to deliver measurable improvements for patients, release NHS capacity and drive economic growth.
LinkGevity is developing a next-generation Anti-Necrotic therapeutic that addresses the underlying drivers of ageing. To date, the company’s AI-enabled solution has been supported to date by Innovate UK, the Francis Crick Institute, and the UK Space Agency.
The Anti-Necrotic therapeutic is the first drug capable of blocking necrosis – undesirable and destructive unprogrammed cell death – that has long been a fundamental hurdle for the treatment of multiple age-related diseases and medicine more broadly. LinkGevity’s work has gained global attention, having recently featured in the Financial Times as one of the five most exciting investment opportunities in the longevity space. The work has also featured in The Times, BBC News, and Sky News, amongst others.
The organisation’s endeavours are currently focused on acute tubular necrosis (ATN), the underlying driver of kidney dysfunction and degeneration (1), as a first model of disease and ageing. If necrosis inhibition can be achieved successfully, this presents an opportunity to transform the treatment of kidney disease, which is regarded a public health emergency (3) for which there is no cure, before progressing to other indications. Thus, LinkGevity is working with Health Innovation East to explore the initiation of a UK-based clinical trial.
Currently, ‘in advanced stages of [kidney disease], when kidney function is significantly impaired, patients can only be treated with dialysis or a transplant’ (2). Kidney Research UK’s report ‘Kidney disease: A UK public health emergency’ found that kidney disease affects more than 10% of the entire UK population, with an economic impact costing £7 billion per year, with £6.4 billion being direct costs to the NHS (3). By the age of 75, it is also estimated that half the population will develop some form of kidney disease (4). A successful clinical trial, exploring necrosis inhibition would therefore be significant.
The health decline of ageing populations, particularly regarding patients with multiple chronic conditions, is creating significant financial, social, and economic pressures which are projected to increase in the future (5).
Beyond the kidney, the Anti-Necrotic has potential to slow degeneration and shield multiple organs from damage. The intervention’s potential ranges from applications in dementia to cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, and the ageing process more broadly (1,6) LinkGevity therefore plans for the clinical trial to also include ageing end-points, potentially setting the path for the drug to be approved as the first drug for ageing globally.
The potential to block necrosis has applications beyond Earth, in space, where microgravity and radiation accelerate degeneration (1).
LinkGevity’s technology was selected as one of only twelve global innovations for NASA’s Space Health Program, due to its potential to address, for the first time, tissue degeneration and accelerated ageing in astronauts. The UK Space Agency has also recently funded LinkGevity to collaborate with Delta Biosciences – a Lithuanian partner – to test the Anti-Necrotic in space. Data generated in space will be directly applicable to further implement the drug on Earth, as space conditions help us understand degenerative processes that occur on Earth over much longer timeframes.
Health Innovation East is supporting LinkGevity to navigate the translational and regulatory landscape efficiently, ensuring that its therapeutic follows an optimal route towards clinical use. The partnership is facilitating LinkGevity’s collaboration with the NHS towards conducting a clinical trial that will connect cutting-edge therapeutics with real-world patient outcomes.
By facilitating leading hospital site selection and partnership development, Health Innovation East will support LinkGevity’s therapeutic to be trialled and implemented across UK hospitals, placing the UK at the forefront of translational innovation and marking a major milestone in the field.
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