Interview: GlycanAge launch first hospital-based tests

Biological age testing pioneer GlycanAge plans to use the cash raised from its recent US$8.7m funding round to expand its reach, explore additional bio-marking capabilities of its unique technology and fund its recently-opened Californian lab. Agetech World editor Peter McCusker met Jonathan White, head of its UK office, to find out more.

GlycanAge was founded in 2020 by Prof Gordan Lauc and his daughter Nikolina Lauc to capitalise on the former’s groundbreaking work on the capabilities of glycan sugars as ageing biomarkers.

Glycans coat all cell surfaces and are present in most human tissues where they help regulate cell signalling and development.

In his Zagreb lab Prof Lauc was able to interpret glycan signals around chronic inflammation as a pernicious – but reversible – drivers of premature ageing.

This led to the development of GlycanAge’s ‘inflammaging’ clock which estimates biological age by measuring patterns of glycan abundance on Immunoglobulin G’ – the most abundant antibody in blood.

This analysis allows for a detailed assessment of an individual’s biological age, and offers insights into how variable lifestyle choices – poor diet, stress, inactivity – and other environmental factors impact ageing.

World-leading US lab

Speaking to Agetech World from its headquarters on the Newcastle University-partnered Helix innovation hub, next to Newcastle United’s St James Park home, UK office head Jonathan White elaborated on its future ambitions and recounted its success to date.

“Glycan testing is a very complex process and about 85% of the underlying research on glycans and biological ageing stems from over 20 years of work by Prof Lauc and his team in their Zagreb lab.

Prof Gordan Lauc, co-founder, GlycanAge

“This latest investment round will allow us to produce indication-specific products – all from the original science – that can be implemented into various avenues such as a menopause-specific product, or a cardiovascular one, for example.

“We’ve recently established our second lab in California, which will streamline analysis and processing for our US clients and help us maintain our world-leading capabilities.”

GlycanAge’s unique chronic inflammation test involves analysis of a blood sample with the company having undertaken over 300,000 of these, worldwide, since inception.

Global potential

One area of interest to the GlycanAge team is in the onset of female menopause with Mr White highlighting how glycan testing can help smooth this process.

“This is a time of life when women are prime candidates for a chronic inflammatory-based disease to develop and in this environment there is the potential for our testing capabilities to be able to recognise this change and help with identifying approbate treatment, such as hormone supplements.”

Its geographical footprint is expanding rapidly with representation in the United Arab Emirates, South America, Singapore, New York, Japan, Indonesia, Bulgaria, and Spain..

As well as the recently-opened US lab it is on course to create an additional lab in the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia.

GlycanAge’s tests have mostly been adopted in private and individual health settings with the company now delivering its first lab-developed tests in a hospital setting.

Hospital setting

This year it expects to deploy its technology into more than 10 hospitals across Europe and the Middle East, with St Catherine Specialty Hospital in Zagreb recently becoming the first hospital globally to integrate glycan-based biomarkers into routine cardio-metabolic risk screening.

Professor Lauc said: “Hospitals are conservative – and they should be. But we’ve now made the first big step. We’ve put our machine into a hospital, and together with clinicians we’re developing diagnostic applications that actually make sense in practice.”

This is a key development for GlycanAge as it looks to see its technologies adopted in mainstream medical settings such as the UK National Health Service.

Although the company is realistic in recognising many existing healthcare systems are limited as they focus on symptoms, whilst the GlycanAge test focuses on measuring and tackling chronic inflammation, years before it manifests as a disease.

Last month, GlycanAge secured Its €7.4m (US$8.7m) in fresh funding following an earlier seed round In 2024, which saw the company raise €3.9m in seed-funding.

Its investors include Fifth Quarter Ventures, Guinness Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, South Central Ventures, Impetus Capital, Vesna Deep Tech VC, Lightfield Equity, LaunchHub Ventures and Kadmos Capital.