Generation Lab has begun prescribing 1 Generation, a combination of two drugs whose names remain secret
Generation Lab has begun prescribing 1 Generation, a combination of two drugs whose names remain secret
On August 27, MIT Technology Review reported that Generation Lab is offering an injectable combination called 1 Generation to a limited group of people under medical supervision. The company describes it as a combination of two existing drugs and is preparing a study involving more than one hundred participants.
The idea behind 1 Generation grew out of a question that Irina Conboy has studied for many years: how substances in the blood affect tissue repair. In a 2005 study, Conboy and her colleagues surgically joined the circulatory systems of young and old mice. After injury, the older animals showed better muscle repair, and their liver cells divided more actively. This experiment raised a specific question: which signals in an old organism interfere with tissue repair?
In a 2020 study, Conboy's group replaced half of the plasma, the liquid component of blood, in old mice with saline containing 5% albumin. The researchers measured muscle repair, fat deposits, liver scarring, and the formation of new cells in the hippocampus, a brain region associated with memory. They tested whether the blood environment of an old animal could be altered without transfusing young blood.
Conboy later said that she tested drug combinations in a system containing human cells and serum from older people. Describing the effect of 1 Generation, she said, “It allows human cells to remain in a youthful state even in blood serum from older people.”
Generation Lab cofounder and CEO Alina Su said the secrecy was intended to protect the company from imitators. The company does not own the molecules themselves, but she expects to obtain a brief period of exclusivity for the new use of their combination. In public, the company describes 1 Generation only as a combination of two existing drugs.
The public relations team sent the journalist a table of participants' self-reported outcomes, which included longer workouts and changes in vision and general well-being. Physician Matt Cook agreed to prescribe the combination to Conboy and several people in their shared circle. “I had zero confidence that it would work. I did not believe at all that it would work,” he recalled. After receiving weekly injections, Cook described a sense of mental clarity that initially lasted for one day and later for several days. He said that other participants reported feeling well and no longer experiencing their usual aches and pains. “I still do not understand the exact mechanism here,” he added.
Generation Lab is planning a study involving more than one hundred participants.