Our Approach
Infirmacea is committed to transforming gene therapy into practical, innovative solutions that enhance health span. While today’s mainstream gene therapy development often centers on highly advanced and resource-intensive technologies—such as gene editing—primarily aimed at rare genetic disorders, our approach takes a different path. We focus on building a robust, scalable, and versatile DNA therapy platform designed to address more common disease states. By prioritizing safety, manufacturability, and broad applicability, our goal is to improve health outcomes for wider populations and ultimately expand gene therapy into the realm of preventive medicine.
gBoostTM: Powering Precision Gene Therapy
gBoost™ is an innovative gene expression-enhancing technology, discovered serendipitously during efforts to optimize plasmid-based delivery. This work uncovered a previously unrecognized intracellular barrier to efficient gene expression—distinct from the well-studied challenges of cellular uptake and endosomal escape that have dominated the field.By overcoming this third intracellular barrier, gBoost™ enables two key advantages:
(1) Broad delivery compatibility
gBoost™ significantly enhances transgene expression across diverse delivery platforms, including viral vectors (e.g., AAV) and non-viral systems (e.g., electrotransfer).
(2) Cell-type dependent enhancement
Its activity is modulated by cell type, enabling context-specific optimization to improve performance in targeted tissues or therapeutic settings.
gBoost™ is composed of materials with established clinical safety, allowing it to be used as an excipient in gene therapy formulations. The platform is tunable—adaptable to specific target cells, gene constructs, and delivery vectors, including distinct viral serotypes. For detailed data and technical collaboration, please contact us.
DNA therapy:
An Underexplored Frontier in Gene Therapy
Infirmacea is pioneering an innovative DNA therapy platform designed to transform the body into a “health engine”—capable of promoting resilience against disease. By leveraging DNA as a safe, affordable, and versatile therapeutic material, our platform—powered by our proprietary gBoost™ technology—maximizes gene expression and therapeutic impact. Our delivery strategy focuses on skeletal muscle and subcutaneous fat, with primary emphasis on skeletal muscle, which comprises approximately 30% of body mass. In preliminary studies, gBoost™ has demonstrated over 100-fold enhancement of gene expression in skeletal muscle, establishing it as an exceptionally promising target for non-viral DNA therapeutics. This enables skeletal muscle to serve as a sustained source of therapeutic proteins—unlocking new potential in both treatment and disease prevention. We are actively seeking collaborators to co-found start-ups focused on realizing this vision through targeted DNA therapy development.
Therapeutic Focus: Toward Preventive Medicines
Our long-standing goal is to build a path toward therapeutic and ultimately preventive interventions for age-related diseases—beginning with a focus on musculoskeletal dysfunctions, which represent a major and growing public health burden. Conditions such as joint degeneration, frailty, sarcopenia, and related impairments profoundly reduce quality of life and increase healthcare costs, especially in aging societies. Despite increasing awareness of these issues, there are currently no approved medications that effectively treat or prevent most musculoskeletal aging-related conditions. This is due to several persistent challenges:
(1) The need for long-term drug safety in the context of polypharmacy, common among older adults
(2) Complex pathophysiology with no clear molecular targets or reliable biomarkers
(3) Clinical trials that require extended duration, large cohorts, and functional outcome measures
Infirmacea aims to overcome these barriers with our ultrasafe DNA therapy platform, enabling repeated administration and long-term expression of therapeutic proteins. Our strategy is to begin with well-defined, targetable disease subsets, which can be extrapolated to age-related musculoskeletal dysfunctions, such as anorexia nervosa or joint injuries, including tendon and cartilage. Through these initial indications, we intend to establish both efficacy and long-term safety of our platform. With this foundation, we plan to progressively expand into broader, preventive health applications, ultimately contributing to healthier aging and extending functional lifespan.