Hard Krypton Exclusive | Oxford PhD Launches Anti-Aging Drug Startup, Led by Monolith, Simultaneously Developing Veterinary and Human Pharmaceuticals
Yingke has learned that the AI anti-aging drug R & D company "Endless Ark" has completed a seed round of financing worth tens of millions of yuan. Monolith led the investment, and Jiufu Venture Capital participated in the follow - on investment. This financing will be mainly used to accelerate the engineering production of core drugs and clinical verification in cats and dogs, and at the same time promote the construction of two AI systems: the H2P cross - species platform and the wet - dry combined drug R & D platform.
Endless Ark was founded in May 2026, targeting a direction that is cutting - edge in the longevity industry but has a shorter verification path: first establish an anti - aging efficacy model in pets such as dogs and cats, and then promote the pipeline of human anti - aging drugs in reverse.
Its founder, Zhao Simiao, studied artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh for his undergraduate degree. He entered the field of aging research during his master's and doctoral studies at the University of Oxford and once joined the Longevity Biotech Fellowship. The co - founder and CTO, Zeng Jingkun, is a post - doctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and studied under Jennifer Doudna, the inventor of CRISPR gene - editing technology and a Nobel laureate. Currently, the core team of Endless Ark consists of six Oxford doctors, as well as many doctors and post - doctoral fellows from world - renowned universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, covering fields such as artificial intelligence, computational biology, gene editing, aging biology, and drug transformation.
Human beings' pursuit of longevity has remained enthusiastic from ancient times to the present. With the progress of modern medicine, we are getting closer to achieving a long and healthy life. This enthusiasm is also reflected in the financing sector. According to data released by PitchBook, in 2024, global longevity companies raised $8.49 billion in 331 transactions, and capital continues to pour in.
Compared with many anti - aging drug research companies, the difference of Endless Ark is that it doesn't just want to be a pet drug company, nor does it only focus on a single public target for R & D. Its underlying assumption is that there are some sufficiently conservative aging mechanisms between dogs, cats, and humans.
To address this issue, Endless Ark has developed the H2P (Human - to - Pet) cross - species transfer learning model. Based on data such as single - cell transcriptomes, this model aligns the gene expression information of humans and pets, and uses a domain - adaptive neural network to filter out signals with excessive species differences, retaining candidate directions that are conserved across species, significantly related to aging, and more likely to be intervened by drugs. The company hopes to establish a more transferable data and verification system between pet drugs and human drugs through the cross - species AI platform.
Currently, Endless Ark is mainly divided into three lines: the AI group, the drug group, and the precision health department, corresponding to target screening, efficacy verification, and long - term data accumulation respectively. The goal of the AI group is to first narrow down the search space for anti - aging drugs. The drug group promotes drug development and efficacy verification based on the targets screened by AI. The precision health department is responsible for collecting the age, physical examination indicators, disease history, living status, and follow - up results of pets to establish a long - term aging database. For Endless Ark, this data not only serves the R & D of pet drugs but also supplements the AI model and the judgment of human drug transformation in reverse.
The following is an excerpt from Yingke's interview with CTO Zeng Jingkun:
Yingke: What were the considerations for starting a business at this time?
Zeng Jingkun: We believe that the development of anti - aging drugs has entered a stage where it can be advanced through engineering. This is due to three core changes that have occurred recently: First, there has been a long - term accumulation of basic science. Aging is no longer a vague concept, and more and more studies have confirmed that the intervention of certain pathways can systematically improve the functions of multiple organs in elderly animals. Second, the maturity of the Chinese biomedical industry chain. China currently has a strong ability in new drug R & D and industrial transformation, which can quickly transform excellent scientific ideas into drugs and enter real - world verification, helping us truly produce and verify anti - aging drugs. Third, the breakthrough of AI technology. Aging is a complex problem involving multiple organs, cells, and pathways. AI is good at finding cross - species and cross - tissue patterns in large - scale biological data, helping us find the optimal solution in a huge space of combinations.
Yingke: There are many companies making breakthroughs in the longevity industry. What are the core advantages of Endless Ark?
Zeng Jingkun: The longevity market is large enough. Our core advantages are mainly reflected in three aspects: First, we are doing integrated design of human and pet drugs. From the beginning, we put both in the same system and use cross - species data to open up the path. The pet side can complete real - world verification more quickly, while the human drug side represents long - term value.
Second, we attach great importance to the conservation of cross - species targets. Aging is a long - term and systematic process, and species differences are easily magnified. Our H2P (Human - to - Pet) platform essentially quantifies and answers which targets use the same "lock" in the aging process of mammals such as humans, dogs, cats, and mice.
Finally, we have a R & D system driven by both "AI target discovery" and "AI drug development". First, AI is used to integrate cross - species and cross - organ biological data to identify aging targets with transformation potential. After determining the targets, AI will further enter the drug development stage, used for the design and optimization of drug molecules, and continuously feed experimental data back to the model to further improve the prediction and design ability of the next round, forming a wet - dry combined closed - loop of "Lab - in - the - loop". Anti - aging requires the coordinated advancement of algorithms, targets, biological verification, drug engineering, and clinical pathways. We are confident that we can do our best in both AI and experiments.
Yingke: Endless Ark relies on the assumption that "the core genes driving aging are common across different species". What is the current verification level?
Zeng Jingkun: From existing research, aging mechanisms such as increased inflammation, tissue fibrosis, imbalance of protein homeostasis, and decreased mitochondrial function do have species conservation in mammals. However, commonality does not mean complete consistency. A certain gene may be a core driving factor in mice but only an accompanying phenomenon in dogs; there may be a therapeutic window in humans, but there may be safety issues in other species.
Our H2P model rigorously and quantitatively evaluates each target by aligning the multi - omics data of humans, dogs, cats, and mice: Does it change in the aging tissues of different species? Is the direction of change consistent? Can it bring measurable functional improvement after intervention? At the microscopic level, we will also go deep into the gene expression level to find genes with the same consistent changes. Currently, we believe that the general direction of cross - species conservation is valid, but each target must be verified with data and experiments, which is also the value of our existence.
Yingke: Why is the first step to introduce pet drugs to the market?
Zeng Jingkun: We choose to focus on the pet side first because it solves multiple problems at the same time: Pets have real needs, short life cycles, and it is easier to conduct clinical trials; it can also make the public understand that aging is a biological process that can be intervened. In terms of policy, the FDA recently allowed aging itself to be used as a clinical observation indicator for pets for the first time, marking a institutional breakthrough. As for human drug development, we have currently found suitable and clear indications and are advancing clinical trials in strict accordance with the logic of human drug development based on these indications.
Yingke: How to understand the company's goal shifting from "simply extending lifespan" to "functional reversal"?
Zeng Jingkun: Extending lifespan is easily misunderstood as simply prolonging the length of life. If one lives to 120 years old but loses the ability to move and is physically weak, it is meaningless. What we really pursue is Healthy Aging, which means making aging organs regain function or stay healthy for a long time.
"Functional reversal" is not a marketing concept, nor does it mean making the body perfectly return to a young state. Instead, it focuses on measurable and verifiable biological indicators. For example, whether the exercise ability of elderly animals has improved, whether metabolism has improved, whether the inflammation level has decreased, whether organ fibrosis has been alleviated, and whether the cardiovascular and immune status is closer to that of a young state. If the underlying metabolic and organ indicators of an organism are truly improved and it behaves more like a young and healthy individual, it is more meaningful than simply pursuing a long life.