Samsara Therapeutics

This is a new frontier of biology

Autophagy is a process of cellular renewal which occurs in all the cells of the body. Its role is to clear unwanted proteins, organelles and even invading bodies such as viruses and bacteria, cutting them up into building blocks which can be used by the cell to make new proteins.

Autophagy occurs at a low level continuously but is boosted when we exercise or when we are hungry. And many studies have shown that boosting autophagy in model organisms significantly extends lifespan.

When we age, the ability of our cells to undergo autophagy reduces. And in many diseases, particularly ones which have a genetic basis, we see dysfunctional autophagy. In fact there is huge and compelling evidence from human genetics that many diseases are driven by autophagy dysfunction.

Samsara’s mission is to discover new mechanisms which can restore autophagy, and at the same time new drugs which use these mechanisms for the treatment of genetically defined diseases.