biotechnology founded 1999 headquarters reno nevada key people william h. andrews founder president and ceo ; richard offerdahl co chairman of the board and coo ; pierluigi zappacosta co chairman of the board and vice president business development slogan cure aging or die trying 1 website www.sierrasci.com sierra sciences llc is a biotechnology company founded by william h. andrews former director of molecular biology at geron corporation . 2 andrews founded sierra sciences in 1999 in reno nevada with the goal of preventing and or reversing cellular senescence and ultimately curing diseases associated with human aging including the aging process itself . 3 contents 1 background 2 sierra sciences company history 3 discoveries 4 see also 5 references 6 external links background edit in humans aging is strongly correlated with the length of an individual s telomeres the repetitive dna at the ends of each chromosome . each time a cell in the body divides its telomeres become shorter . 4 eventually telomeres will shorten to the point where the cell is unable to divide the hayflick limit . the enzyme telomerase adds these dna sequence repeats to the telomere re lengthening it . in humans telomerase is expressed in embryonic stem cells and some other cells but most somatic cells do not express it . 5 while working at geron corporation andrews co discovered the rna component of human telomerase htr and was issued u.s. patent 5 583 016 . 6 7 for this discovery andrews was awarded second place as national inventor of the year in 1997 by the intellectual property owners association . 8 andrews also co discovered the protein component of human telomerase htert for which he was issued u.s. patent 6 261 836 . 9 the htert gene is present in all human cells but is repressed in most . in 1997 andrews left geron and in 1999 founded sierra sciences to pursue the anti aging implications of these discoveries intending to find a drug that would switch on this repressed gene . sierra sciences company history edit this section needs to be updated . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . july 2015 at the time of its inception sierra sciences president was dan fylstra founder of visicorp . in 2002 richard offerdahl co founder of zycad corporation and former director of digi international assumed the position of chairman of the board of sierra sciences . in 2003 offerdahl was elected chief operating officer . in 2003 pierluigi zappacosta co founder of logitech was elected president and chief executive officer . in 2008 andrews was promoted to president and ceo and zappacosta took the roles of co chairman of the board and vice president business development . in early 2016 bill andrews announced that sierra sciences was working with bioviva and will be to starting a new venture bioviva fiji on fiji and they will be the first company to use gene therapy to treat biological aging in humans . 10 discoveries edit in 2001 sierra sciences discovered a repressor binding site dubbed site c that blocks the expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase tert . for this discovery sierra sciences was issued u.s. patent 6 686 159 in 2004 . 11 sierra sciences discovered another repressor bind site gc box 5 in 2004 for which it was issued patent 7 279 328 in 2007 . 12 sierra sciences discovered methods of assaying tert promoter modulatory agents allowing the company to efficiently check a variety of compounds to see if they inhibit repression of htert in 2005 . for this discovery it was issued u.s. patent 7 226 744 in 2007 . 13 in 2007 sierra sciences discovered a small molecule drug like compound that turns on the expression of telomerase in human cells . the compound is internally known as c0057684 . 14 in 2008 using c0057684 as a positive control sierra sciences developed a quantitative pcr based high throughput screening assay to more efficiently screen for compounds that transiently induce the expression of endogenous telomerase in human cells . sierra sciences has already identified more than fifty such drugs and is characterizing their mechanism of action . citation needed see also edit telomere telomerase references edit shea steven . history of isagenix . complete life wellness . retrieved 19 july 2015 . geron corp. licensee ta sciences announces landmark 7 07 07 teleconference pr newswire association july 7 2007 sierra sciences sierra sciences 2006 siegel lee j. 2008 are telomeres the key to aging and cancer the university of utah genetic science learning center archived from the original scholar search on december 20 2007 coleman william b. & tsongalis gregory j. 2002 the molecular basis of human cancer humana press isbn 978 0 89603 634 5 mammalian telomerase united states patent 1996 the rna component of human telomerase . science 1995 company overview sierra sciences 2006 archived from the original on december 28 2007 telomerase united states patent 2001 tayag yasmin 22 may 2016 . bioviva plans an age reversal clinic in fiji as medical tourism gets weird . retrieved 24 july 2016 . methods and compositions for modulating telomerase reverse transcriptase tert expression united states patent 2004 methods and compositions for modulating telomerase reverse transcriptase tert expression united states patent 2007 assays for tert promoter modulatory agents using a telomerase structural rna component united states patent 2007 tanglao shawna ; et al. 2008 the discovery of c0057684 a telomerase activity inducing compound the methuselah foundation archived from the original on june 29 2008 external links edit company web site v t e outline of life extension issues anti oxidants anti aging movement biohacking calorie restriction chemical brain preservation cryonics cyborg exercise free radical theory gene therapy gerontology glycation indefinite lifespan index of topics related to life extension list of aging processes longevity escape velocity mind uploading nanomedicine organ printing rejuvenation senescence stem cell therapy strategies for engineered negligible senescence transhumanist politics people bill andrews eric r. braverman aubrey de grey laura deming denham harman leonard hayflick cynthia kenyon ray kurzweil marios kyriazis liz parrish durk pearson mark roth sandy shaw roy walford michael d. west organizations 2045 initiative alliance for aging research american academy of anti aging medicine american aging association buck institute for research on aging bioviva calico life extension foundation methuselah foundation sens research foundation sierra sciences books life extension 1982 the 10 % solution for a healthy life 1993 the first immortal 1998 fantastic voyage 2004 ending aging 2007 categories life extension retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sierra sciences & oldid 741092598 categories biotechnology companies of the united statescompanies based in reno nevadalife extensiongerontologyprivately held companies based in 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