ARCH-backed biotech emerges with $85M and a bold claim: A new hu­man hor­mone can re­verse a key ef­fect of ag­ing

The el­der­ly pa­tient’s mus­cles didn’t look right be­neath the mi­cro­scope.

He wasn’t just old. He had di­a­bet­ic my­opa­thy, a com­pli­ca­tion where mus­cles de­grade faster than nor­mal. The mi­to­chon­dria die, fibers weak­en, and the tis­sues be­come so bro­ken up they re­sem­ble cracked Dust Bowl earth. “Like cot­tage cheese,” of­fers Russ Cox, a Genen­tech and Jazz Phar­ma al­umn.

But now they looked — healthy. Mi­to­chon­dria were fir­ing. The fibers perked and stretched.

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