Founded earlier this year by Dr L\u00e9a Wenger and Prof. Kevin Chalut, both former scientists at longevity biotech giant Altos Labs, Cyclana aims to close long-standing gaps in women\u2019s health by studying endometriosis at the tissue level rather than in individual cells. Drawing on its founders\u2019 learnings in aging biology, the company integrates multi-scale biological data spanning epigenetics, cell signaling and extracellular matrix biology to create in vitro models that replicate human endometrial tissue.<\/p>\n
In theory, the approach enables Cyclana to test therapies in conditions that closely mimic the natural environment of the disease, potentially overcoming one of the major reasons most drugs fail in clinical trials.<\/p>\n
Longevity.Technology: Alongside companies like Ochre Bio<\/a> and Bexorg<\/a>, Cyclana is part of a growing movement in biotech towards tissue- and organ-based approaches to drug discovery. Something has to change \u2013 with around 90% drug candidates failing in clinical trials, maintaining the status quo simply isn\u2019t an option. Cyclana\u2019s initial goal is to build a physiologically relevant model of endometriosis in the lab so it can identify new drug targets and predict patient responses more accurately. We sat down with its co-founders to learn more.<\/p>\n Cyclana\u2019s Altos connection is no coincidence \u2013 the core principles and mechanisms that the company is founded on have broad implications, not only in women\u2019s health, but also in many age-related diseases.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the realizations that shaped Cyclana came from our collaborative work at Altos,\u201d says Wenger. \u201cKevin and I met there. Altos is a great discovery environment, very collaborative, and that\u2019s where we began to see the power of integrating multi-scale data: looking at the epigenetics of a process, the matrix structure of the tissue, and the functional behavior of the cells all together.\u201d<\/p>\n Combining epigenetic and matrix data <\/p>\n Having \u2018clicked\u2019 early on in their time at Altos, both founders found they shared a keen interest in women\u2019s health, with Wenger having a particularly personal motivation.<\/p>\n \u201cI have endometriosis \u2014 so I\u2019m very aware of both the medical and scientific limitations,\u201d she says. \u201cLike any scientist with a condition, you end up researching it deeply. We realized that endometriosis was a perfect case for the approaches we\u2019d been developing \u2013 integrating epigenetic and matrix data \u2013 and that it was a mission we wanted to pursue together.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Wenger, endometriosis research has suffered from a combination of underfunding \u2013 women\u2019s health has historically lacked grants and resources \u2013 but also because it is a challenging disease to study.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have cells that are in the wrong place, and while they\u2019re not cancerous, they proliferate and behave in similar ways,\u201d she explains. \u201cTargeting them is difficult, because you\u2019re dealing with the endometrium itself. It\u2019s not a case where a single cell type goes wrong and you can isolate the mechanism. It\u2019s a whole-tissue problem.\u201d<\/p>\n For Chalut, endometriosis, estimated to affect one in 10 women worldwide, is one of many diseases that must first be understood at the tissue level in order to effectively treat them.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout my career, I\u2019ve been trying to \u2018zoom out\u2019 \u2013 to study disease not just at the molecular or cellular level, but at the tissue scale, where cells interact with each other and with the extracellular matrix,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where disease actually emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n Wenger was inspired by Kevin\u2019s work exploring the extracellular matrix, which demonstrated that cells behave completely differently depending on their environment.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can plate identical cells on matrices of different stiffness or composition, and they\u2019ll express entirely different surface receptors and signaling pathways,\u201d she says. \u201cThat means when we culture cells on 2D plastic \u2013 which is how most drug screening is still done \u2013 we\u2019re forcing them into an unnatural environment. The drugs might appear to work or fail, but that response often doesn\u2019t reflect what happens in the human body. So our aim is to test drugs in conditions that truly mimic how cells behave in vivo.\u201d<\/p>\n Does menstrual fluid hold the key? <\/p>\n As a tissue-level disease, endometriosis presents a particularly exciting opportunity, due to a unique source of access to human data: menstrual fluid.<\/p>\n \u201cMenstrual fluid contains biopsy-grade tissue that\u2019s naturally shed every month \u2013 there\u2019s nothing else like it in medicine,\u201d says Chalut. \u201cThat gives us a unique window into the disease. We can build tissue models that mirror both disease and health in vitro, find new drug targets, and contribute to a broader shift in how people think about therapeutic discovery \u2013 moving beyond cells in a dish to real tissue systems.\u201d<\/p>\n The company is also pioneering the use of menstrual fluid as a biological resource, collecting samples from volunteers to build physiologically relevant models of the endometrium.<\/p>\n \u201cMenstrual fluid gives us an unprecedented opportunity to learn \u2013 far beyond what we can discover from blood or other samples,\u201d says Wenger. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for women to play an active role in advancing the science behind diseases that have affected them and been ignored for too long. By donating, they\u2019re helping us build the foundation for better understanding and treatment \u2013 not just for endometriosis, but for women\u2019s health more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n Wider applications in chronic inflammation <\/p>\nCyclana Bio co-founders Kevin Chalut and L\u00e9a Wenger. <\/p>\n