Rejuvenation Technologies, Inc., a Mountain View, California-based biotechnology company, has received a USD 2.06 million NIAAA SBIR Commercialization Readiness Pilot grant to advance a TERT mRNA therapeutic toward an IND submission for alcoholic hepatitis — a condition with 25–50% one-month mortality and no approved treatments beyond corticosteroids of limited efficacy.
The award funds IND-enabling work for an intravenously delivered TERT mRNA formulated in hepatocyte-targeted lipid nanoparticles. Chronic alcohol-related liver injury drives repeated hepatocyte proliferation, accelerating telomere shortening, triggering cellular senescence, and activating hepatic stellate cells toward fibrogenesis. By transiently delivering TERT mRNA — which is translated and then degraded within days — the approach aims to extend telomeres sufficiently to restore hepatocyte regenerative capacity without permanently elevating telomerase activity. The company reports greater than 99% hepatocyte transfection at 0.05 mg/kg in preclinical models, including cirrhotic livers. Planned work includes pharmacokinetic studies in mice, GMP manufacturing, genotoxicity assessment, and GLP toxicology studies in non-human primates.
The grant follows a prior NIAAA Phase II SBIR award and a completed FDA INTERACT meeting, indicating the program has cleared early regulatory checkpoints. Principal investigator John Ramunas leads the effort. If the IND proceeds, Rejuvenation Technologies has indicated plans to expand into broader alcohol-associated liver disease indications, where short telomeres are also a recognized marker of disease progression.
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