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A new article spotlights British biotech Scripta Therapeutics, which has launched from stealth with $12 million in seed funding to pursue a bold approach to age-related diseases. Led by founder and CEO Peter Hamley, the Oxford-based startup argues that conventional drug discovery focuses too narrowly on downstream disease effects. Instead, Scripta wants to target transcription factors—the proteins that switch genes on and off and act as master regulators of cellular behaviour. The scientific foundation comes from the work of co-founder Professor Noel Buckley at the University of Oxford.
The company’s first priority is neurodegeneration, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS, where transcription factor disruption is a well-established feature. Hamley notes that transcription factors repeatedly appear in genetic studies of long-lived individuals and in research on cellular reprogramming, which can reverse aspects of biological ageing. These overlaps suggest shared biology between longevity and neurodegenerative disease—an insight Scripta aims to harness.
Using genome-wide mapping and transcriptomic analysis, the startup reconstructs transcriptional networks to pinpoint where cellular regulation goes awry. Its computational platform then searches for molecules that can shift those networks back to a healthy state, even if this means indirectly modulating transcription factor activity. Early analyses of Alzheimer’s patient data have already revealed both known and previously unexplored transcription factor targets.
Scripta calls its strategy “biology-first”. The company integrates high-content imaging, patient-derived cell models and AI-driven screening to validate whether predicted compounds can restore normal gene-expression patterns. While neurodegeneration is the immediate focus, transcription factor dysregulation also underpins cancer, fibrosis and inflammatory disease, offering the potential for broad applications in longevity and regenerative medicine.
