Metavo Life Sciences Inc. and Metavo LLC, a Texas Limited Liability Company (“Metavo” ) is a new venture based on science to delay the physiological changes associated with aging.  Metavo was formed to develop and market products to maintain health, body functionality and well-being by aiming at the root molecular causes of the aging process.  Many natural products exist that improve health and extend lifespan. http://www.uttx.com/metavo.html. These natural molecules modulate cells and tissues to extend the period of healthy, functional, independent existence. Metavo is utilizing technologies that improve and extend healthy existence and expects to translate these technologies into marketable products to delay, with the hope of avoiding, the debilitating conditions that are considered ‘normal’ in old age.
Metavo has a provisional funding commitment of matching investment money from CentreStone Ventures LP, a Canadian Life Sciences focused venture capital fund, up to US$ 1.0 million.

    Metavo was formed under the guidance of Genesys Venture Inc.. [GVI] is a company dedicated to the development of biotechnology ventures. http://www.genesysventure.com
Genesys Venture Inc. (“GVI”), Winnipeg, Canada, provides the expertise, experience and energy required to manage emerging health and biotechnology ventures. Led by  bio-entrepreneur Dr. Albert Friesen, the GVI team has extensive experience in helping to develop innovative life-sciences companies and presently has mentored a stable of several public companies. The most notable companies being Mantex, Inc. now part of Gilead Sciences Inc. and Medicure, Inc., a public cardiovascular pharmaceutical venture having a market capitalization of over $145 million. The latest GVI company, Diamedica, Inc.is [Jan-Feb 2007] pursuing an initial stock offering [IPO] on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

    The driving force behind Metavo is Geoffrey Grant, Ph.D. http://www.uttx.com/Grant.html an  emeritus professor, biochemist and expert on aging who has extensive experience commercializing university based technologies. Dr. Grant has been a scientist at the Salk Institute, a successful entrepreneur and most recently a technology development business manager at the University of Texas.

    Metavo technologies are being licensed from several renown research institutes, the most notable being the Salk Institute in San Diego, CA. In his laboratory at Salk,  Dr. David Schubert has spent a lifetime working on the preservation of the brain and nerve cells, and, in particular, have focused upon solutions to the neural and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease. The laboratory has developed pharmaceutical molecules that are related to, but 100-1000 times more active than, the bioflavonoids [such as fisetin and  biacalein], the polyphenol, resveratrol, and the Indian spice, curcumin. These molecules are natural ingredients found in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables as well as exotic plants. They have been shown over the past decade to have a wide range of medicinal properties that include  the ability to inhibit cancer cell growth, block inflammation, reverse plaque formation in Alzheimer’s models [Scientific American, Feb 2007], protect nerves cells from toxins, enhance memory and cognitive abilities and most recently [Nature, Nov 2006] resveratrol significantly extends the lifespan of rodents. These natural compounds, to be clinically active, require dose levels much higher than the levels found naturally in plants. Their medicinal use, therefore, requires either chronic consumption of plant extracts over long periods and/or isolation and purification of the active ingredients so that higher doses can be administered. A clinical trial with curcumin on Alzheimer’s disease is presently being conducted at UCLA [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00099710].

    The Schubert laboratory at the Salk Institute has had synthesized curcumin derivatives of the natural molecules that are 100 to one thousand times more active than the natural curcumin plant compounds, depending upon the assay method, functioning as neuro-protective agents in culture. These molecules are being patented as pharmaceuticals and being tested for both possible toxicity [none shown in culture] and for their efficacy in animal clinical models, such as Alzheimer’s disease, by the Cole laboratory at UCLA [referenced in the Scientific American article [attached]; and the clinical trial; see above] and in cognition and memory tests by independent laboratories. These synthetic [modified natural compounds] appear to have the potential of  high potency cutting edge pharmaceuticals, the next generation prevention and treatment for the diseases of aging. The pharmaceutical giant, Novartis, has already expressed interest in these molecules.

    Funding of the Metavo venture has been arrange with Centrestone VC group, a Canadian government-backed venture capital fund who have agreed to provide matching monies up to US $1.0 million. The alternate matching $1.0 million will be raised by Metavo LLC., in which member/partner interest increments are restricted to $25,000  minimum each-to be escrowed until $500,000 is available. The principal initial use of funds is to further the research of the molecules in animals and establish their potency and efficacy as therapeutics. The long term goal, exit strategy, is to attract the attention of ‘Big’ Pharma and either joint venture or sell the pharmaceutical licensing rights.

    Presently, NO drug is prescribed to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s. The compounds that are FDA approved and medically prescribed to treat Alzheimer’s are all directed at symptomatic relief not at solutions to the condition. There are only four drugs that the FDA has approved and that are currently available for relief, but not to cure patients with Alzheimer’s in the United States; Tacrine (CognexR), Donepezil (AriceptR), and Rivastigmine (ReminylR) that inhibit acetylcholinesterase. and the fourth, Memantine (NamendaR) that prevents glutamate excitotoxicity.

    The molecules from the Salk Laboratory are potent and unique. The Salk patented molecules show an ability to promote the destruction of the Alzheimer’s plaque ß-amyloid protein in cell cultures and therefore we consider the molecules to have the potential to prevent and reverse the neuro-degeneration that are prevalent in Alzheimer’s disease.