Shift Bioscience

I'm excited to be speaking at @RNID's Hearing Therapeutics Summit 2025, which is helping to speed the development of therapeutics for hearing loss and tinnitus. With a strengthening link between age related hearing loss and the underlying aging process, hearing loss has become a

AI Virtual Cell vs Linear Model—who wins? 🤖 ⚔️ 📈 Our preprint, entitled "𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨-𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘋𝘰 𝘖𝘶𝘵𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭-𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥

🚀 We’re hiring a Computational Biologist (Toronto) At Shift Bioscience, we’re uncovering the biology of cell rejuvenation to develop safe, effective therapies that reverse cellular aging 🧬 . Our platform integrates single-cell biology and machine learning to identify and validate rejuvenation factors that restore youthful function to aged cells. As a member of our Machine Learning team, you’ll coordinate closely with the wet-lab team, analyze large-scale genomics data, and help evolve our AI-based target discovery platform. What you’ll do 🛠️ ➡️ Build and maintain genomics pipelines (e.g., Nextflow) ➡️ Analyse scRNA-seq and DNA methylation datasets ➡️ Implement and apply aging clocks ➡️ Collaborate with wet-lab scientists to test hypotheses ➡️ Write clean, reproducible code and present results clearly The ideal candidate has a strong biology background, solid coding skills, and clear communication — experience with ML is a plus. Read the full job description here: bit.ly/shift-bio-cb-j… Send your CV and cover letter to cbhiring@shiftbioscience.com (Pictured): The rest of the ML Team (Myself, Lucas Camillo, Gabriel Mejia, and Francis Leblanc) and our advisor, Bo Wang #Rejuvenation #ComputationalBiology #Bioinformatics #MachineLearning #Longevity #Hiring #Toronto

What is the state of research on the emerging grand challenge of virtual cell modeling? 1/n open.substack.com/pub/behindbiom…

Do deep generative models in single-cell omics really work for perturbation prediction? Some benchmark studies say yes: 🔗 arxiv.org/pdf/2408.10609 🔗biorxiv.org/content/10.110… Others say no: 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2410.13956 🔗 BMC Genomics: bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11… To move beyond this debate, we took a different approach—focusing on evaluation metrics. I’m excited to share a new preprint, just accepted at the ICML GenBio Workshop: “Diversity by Design: Addressing Mode Collapse Improves scRNA-seq Perturbation Modeling on Well-Calibrated Metrics” • 𝐏𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.22641 • 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲 & 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀: github.com/shiftbioscienc… 🧬 So, why do simple baselines sometimes outperform SOTA models? Because what we measure shapes what we discover. Our study shows that standard metrics can inflate the performance of naive models, hiding the true strengths and weaknesses of advanced approaches—and slowing progress toward robust “virtual cell” models. 🔎 What we found: • Commonly-used metrics often reward memorization or average prediction—allowing kNN or mean baselines to outperform deep generative models • Evaluations on random splits or with unweighted errors can miss a model’s ability to capture true biological effects • Many current benchmarks don’t truly test generalization to new perturbations—a core requirement for real-world virtual cell applications 🛠️ What we recommend: • Adopt rigorous, biology-aware evaluation—such as leave-one-perturbation-out splits—to test real generalization • Use metrics that reflect biologically meaningful differences, not just generic error rates 📈 Why it matters: Well-designed metrics and benchmarks are foundational for building the next generation of virtual cell models. Without them, we risk confusing artificial progress for real advances in biology and medicine. Huge thanks and congratulations to all the amazing co-authors: Gabriel Mejia, Henry E Miller, Francis Leblanc, Lucas Paulo de Lima Camillo and Brendan Swain!

Are you trying to build a so-called AI virtual cell? 🔬 Yet ... the mean still outperforms your perturbation-response prediction model. 😮‍💨 Our paper— just accepted to the 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗕𝗶𝗼 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 @ 𝗜𝗖𝗠𝗟 —dives into 𝘸𝘩𝘺 the mean excels and what you can do about it.

RT @dives86: @ShiftBioscience proposes an improved ranking system for virtual cell models to accelerate gene target discovery and drive rej…

🆕 New LEVITY episode is live! Why tune in? Because a 24-person Cambridge startup may have beaten the billion-dollar OSK race with a single gene found by AI-powered virtual cells - and the early data look game-changing. (Links as always below.) Just about the hottest thing in longevity science right now is partial reprogramming - using Yamanaka factors to rewind the biological clock in our cells. Billion-dollar giants like Altos, Retro, and New Limit are betting on it. But in this episode a far smaller player, Shift Bioscience, argues the field may be looking in the wrong place. In an exclusive interview CEO Daniel Ives explains how his team used AI-driven virtual cells to uncover one gene that seems to match OSK-level rejuvenation. Without the tumor risk that haunts classical reprogramming. Their just-released data could change aging research. 🔍 In this conversation: ✅ Daniel’s journey from mitochondrial PhD to founding Shift Bioscience. ✅ Why Yamanaka-factor partial reprogramming excites the field and why it’s risky. ✅ Epigenetic clocks 101 - Horvath, single-cell versions, what they really measure. ✅ Building AI “virtual cells” (transformers / GNNs) to run millions of in-silico experiments. ✅ Discovery of new rejuvenation factor sets - incl. SB000, a lone gene that rejuvenates without inducing pluripotency. ✅ Early wet-lab validation in fibroblasts & keratinocytes; mouse studies already under way. ✅ How inhibition targets (not just over-expression) could cut timelines from 15 yrs to ~5 yrs. ✅ Mapping a “risk landscape” of age-linked diseases and why fibrosis may be the fastest clinical entry point ✅ Funding Shift: from redundancy payout to a $16 M seed - and the next raise. ✅ Timelines, escape-velocity hopes, and where cryonics still fits. ✅ What Daniel would ask Jeff Bezos, and why pharma needs to “plug in” now.

Thankyou @peterottsjo and @DrPatrickLinden for hosting me on the LEVITY @reachlevity podcast to discuss our preprint 'A single factor for safer cellular rejuvenation' and beyond! youtube.com/watch?v=vdOVKZ…

RT @dives86: @SheekeyScience breaks down the @ShiftBioscience preprint 'A single factor for safer cellular rejuvenation' highlighting both…

Genuine epigenetic rejuvenation in primary cells has long been the holy grail. A groundbreaking preprint reveals that over-expression of a single (secret) gene overcomes this barrier: greatly reduced age estimates across in fibroblasts and keratinocytes according to validated

@eythorarnalds @lucascamillomd 1. Confirm a broader range of cell types can be rejuvenated 2. Demonstrate rejuvenated cells exhibit the same behaviour as younger cells 3. Progress to proof-of-concept rejuvenation studies in mouse models

@lucascamillomd @ShiftBioscience this is amazing 🙌🏻 - what are the next steps ?

Rare moments make you stop, stare, and imagine their future impact. I’m thrilled to share one of those moments from our work at @ShiftBioscience. Over the last few years, the data often felt unreal. Today we compare the single-gene SB000 (Shift Bioscience 000) with the gold-standard Yamanaka factors OSK(M). Key highlights -⏳ Efficacy – in fibroblasts, SB000 is comparable to OSK in transcriptomic rejuvenation, including decreased senescence markers, and it even outperforms the cocktail across dozens of epigenetic clocks. - ⛑️ Safety – SB000 preserves transcriptomic signatures of fibroblast identity and no pluripotent colonies are observed, in sharp contrast to OSK(M). - 🌐 Generalisability – Rejuvenation extends to cells from a different germ layer. In keratinocytes, PCHorvath2013 fell by over 10 years and DunedinPACE by more than 20% over six weeks. This is only a glimpse of what we’re cooking at Shift with @BrendanMSwain , @dives86, and the rest of the team. Super excited for the future of radical cellular rejuvenation! Paper: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Single-gene rejuvenation target promises safer cell age reversal @ShiftBioscience #longevitybiotech #aging longevity.technology/news/single-ge…

RT @dives86: The dream of waking up in the near future and being substantially younger at a cellular level is something I have the rare pri…

I’m excited to welcome Lord David Prior and Sir Tony Kouzarides to the team at @ShiftBioscience! Joining as Chair of the Board, David brings a wealth of Board experience, including as Chairman of NHS England, to support the Company’s long term mission to comprehensively reverse aging. Tony is a highly cited academic and entrepreneur, having co-founded both the Milner Therapeutics Institute and Abcam. As Scientific Advisor, Tony will help guide Shift’s scientific strategy and help raise awareness of Shift's cell rejuvenation approach to age-driven diseases. Full announcement here shiftbioscience.com/news/shift-bio…

I'll be speaking at Founders Longevity Forum in London on 10th June at OXO2! Let’s connect in London — whether you're building something new in Longevity biotech, investing in the future, or just curious about where the field is going next. Register your interest here: bit.ly/4lhvsYk

I’m excited to be part of a #SynBioBeta2025 panel discussing breakthroughs in epigenetic reprogramming and how this could transform Longevity biotech. Let’s connect in San Jose — whether you're building the next big thing in Longevity biotech, investing in the future, or just curious about where biology is going next. Epigenetic reprogramming has rapidly become the hottest area in longevity biotech, attracting unprecedented attention and billions in investment in just the last two years. Building on Shinya Yamanaka's Nobel Prize winning iPSC reprogramming, a new wave of biotech startups are racing to extend the concept to therapeutically rejuvenate the cells in our bodies. This panel brings together the leading researchers and entrepreneurs of this field to explore the science and recent breakthroughs driving the excitement, the challenges of bringing these therapies to market, and the future of a field that could redefine what it means to age.

1/ We're thrilled to announce Shift Bioscience @ShiftBioscience as a sponsor of Vitalist Bay - our 8-week longevity zone dedicated to combating aging at the cellular level using groundbreaking AI technology. 🔬🧬💻

I’m excited to welcome Dr Jill Reckless and Dr Laurence Reid @laurence_reid to the Shift Bioscience team as Translation Advisor and Non-Executive Director respectively, to help advance our pipeline of rejuvenation therapeutics! Aging mechanisms are common to the majority of modern diseases and are being targeted by Shift to create a common therapeutic approach. With our AI-powered virtual cell delivering a critical mass of gene targets for cell rejuvenation, the major outstanding factors guiding therapeutic development are therapeutic modality and indication selection. Jill and Laurence will be invaluable in steering this latter selection process. Jill has more than 20 years' experience in translational biology. She is the co-founder and CEO at @RxCelerate , during which time she has successfully led drug discovery programs across a range of therapeutic indications and therapeutic modalities. In her role as Translation Advisor, Jill will work closely with our team to interpret our early research and guide the selection of new indications, strengthening our therapeutic pipeline. Laurence is an experienced biotech entrepreneur who has spent over 30 years in the pharma and biotech industries, specializing in strategic planning to develop discovery platforms for clinical translation and financing. Joining us as Non-Executive Director, Laurence will help to build out a robust business development framework, to harness proof-of-concept advances and support long-term Company growth. Read the full announcement here! shiftbioscience.com/news/key-appoi…