Celine Halioua

I’m excited to share that Linda Rhodes, VMD, PhD, has joined our Board of Directors. There are few people who have the breadth and depth of experience across science, veterinary medicine, and entrepreneurship that Linda does. We’re fortunate to have her as part of the Loyal team.

I have long looked up to Linda and consider her a mentor and a friend. Linda has seen it all — from living and working on a feminist dairy cow commune in California to developing three FDA-approved animal health drugs in five years and sitting on the Board of one of the world largest animal health companies. I am honored to learn from her. 

Linda’s expertise in the science and regulation of developing animal health drugs are invaluable to Loyal. We are at an exciting inflection point — aiming to launch our first product to market next year, LOY-002 for senior dogs. We also continue to develop LOY-001 and LOY-003, the large- and giant-breed therapies in our pipeline. Across our portfolio, we will benefit from tapping into Linda’s experience of bringing novel animal drug therapies to market. 

I’m encouraged by the progress we are making across all aspects of the business toward realizing our mission of helping dogs live longer, healthier lives. And I’m inspired by the trails that Linda has blazed ahead of us. 

Please join me in welcoming Linda to Loyal!

Linda Rhodes joins the Loyal Board of Directors

I’m excited to share that Linda Rhodes, VMD, PhD, has joined our Board of Directors. There are few people who have the breadth and depth of experience across science, veterinary medicine, and entrepreneurship that Linda does. We’re fortunate to have her as part of the Loyal team. I have long looked up to Linda and consider her a mentor and a friend. Linda has seen it all — from living and working on a feminist dairy cow commune in California to developing three FDA-approved animal health drugs in five years and sitting on the Board of one of the world largest animal health companies. I am honored to learn from her.&nbsp;



Linda’s expertise in the science and regulation of developing animal health drugs are invaluable to Loyal. We are at an exciting inflection point — aiming to launch our first product to market next year, LOY-002 for senior dogs. We also continue to develop LOY-001 and LOY-003, the large- and giant-breed therapies in our pipeline. Across our portfolio, we will benefit from tapping into Linda’s experience of bringing novel animal drug therapies to market.&nbsp;



I’m encouraged by the progress we are making across all aspects of the business toward realizing our mission of helping dogs live longer, healthier lives. And I’m inspired by the trails that Linda has blazed ahead of us.&nbsp;



Please join me in welcoming Linda to Loyal!

One of my favorite Loyal traditions is our End-of-Week Review. It’s a simple moment every Friday to reflect on what we’ve accomplished during the week. On this Friday of 2024, I wanted to channel that spirit to reflect on Loyal’s year.

Loyal came into 2024 on a high: we had just received the 

 that a drug could be developed — and effective — at extending dogs’ healthy lifespan. It was a pivotal moment for us as a company - a validation of the most audacious thesis of this company.

My team took this energy and harnessed it to fuel this year’s biggest accomplishments -- some we can share now, and some not quite yet! Here are a few of our key highlights:

It’s amazing to see how much progress we’ve made in one year of the 

, the final efficacy study for our senior dog program. For a quick overview on where we are on the study check out 

 by our very own Dr. Ellen Ratcliff, our VP of Clinical and Veterinary Medicine.

In typical Loyal fashion, our trial is unique by design. At over 1,000 dogs, this will be the biggest clinical study in veterinary history as far as we know. We are on track to meet our ambitious enrollment timelines, and project that we’ll have over 1,000 dogs from nearly 70 veterinary clinics on board nationwide as we finalize enrollment next year.

P.S. We’re entering our last round of enrollment. If you want your senior dog to participate in the STAY study, fill out 

 for our Series B, bringing our total investment to over $125 million.

At a very practical level, this money helps fuel our ability to deliver a longevity drug by the end of next year. But perhaps just as importantly, seeing people share our vision — veterinarians, dog owners, and investors  — is a powerful reminder that we have a big (and growing) coalition working together to help us get to have more healthy time with the dogs we love in the very near future.

The Loyal pack hit the road this year! Our team of vets, vet techs, and operators were on the ground at the biggest veterinary conferences across the country. 

We met thousands of vets, vet techs, vet assistants, and other members of the vet community on the floor of the exhibition halls and in the CE classrooms.

We’ll be back at all of the biggest conferences (VMX, WVC, AVMA, and more!) again next year, so stay tuned for more details about where we’ll be and what CE credits our vets will be offering. In the meantime, if you’re interested in taking a free online CE course, please visit our 

Everything we do is backed by research and data. I am a neuroscientist by training, and our ranks are filled by experts in metabolic health, aging, and veterinary medicine. Our team has been hard at work publishing peer-reviewed papers in journals like 

. We’re also exploring new science that hasn’t quite made it into publications yet and continuing to evaluate new ways to help dogs live longer, healthier lives, so stay tuned ;) 

If you want to stay in touch and hear more and hear more about what’s in store for the year ahead, subscribe to our newsletter 

A toast to 2024: Big steps forward in dog longevity

Tom Roseberry

Aging remains a challenging biological process to quantify. Designing effective aging therapeutics hinges on the ability to reliably measure it.

One promising strategy is assessing age-related changes to the 3D structure of DNA. 

quantify these structural changes, using them as inputs to predict the biological age of the tissue.

In addition to the nucleotide sequence, the 3D structure of a DNA strand holds valuable information, too. The most common structural change to DNA is 

 – the addition of a methyl group to a cytosine base at a cytosine/guanine nucleotide pair (

). Methylation changes the shape, and therefore the function, of certain areas of DNA; the methylation status of certain CpG sites change predictably with age.

These changes can be used to create epigenetic “clocks” to quantify the age of an animal or tissue. Just like DNA, methylation can be easily and cheaply sequenced. Different epigenetic clocks weight different combinations of CpG sites, often 1000s, to calculate the predicted age of an animal or tissue.

The use of epigenetics in aging drug development

Loyal is developing drugs intended to extend lifespan (years of life) and healthspan (quality of life). However, it inevitably takes years to determine whether a potential aging drug actually impacts the aging process. Epigenetic clocks may allow one to predict the efficacy (or lack thereof) of a novel aging drug potentially years before measurable changes in healthspan and lifespan.

Put simply, a reliable epigenetic clock may help us understand if an animal is aging quickly or slowly in relation to its peers, and whether a specific intervention has affected that rate of aging.

Loyal has licensed a novel clock and methodology from the Ideker Group at The University of California, San Diego.

This clock identified aging-relevant CpG sites that are conserved between mice, dogs and humans, laying the foundations for conserved aging quantification. In their Cell Systems publication[1], the Ideker Group showed that their epigenetic clock can determine, within one year, the chronological age of a dog. The paper also proposes a more accurate conversion of dog and human years, especially relevant given Loyal’s thesis that developing dog aging drugs will be a key step to developing human aging drugs.

In addition to determining the chronological age of a dog – especially important in the case of shelter dogs and others without birth records – this work out of the Ideker group may help:

In addition, Loyal has partnered with the Morris Animal Foundation to investigate the potential use of DNA methylation changes to predict cancer onset in Golden Retrievers [2].

B-cell lymphoma and hemangiosarcoma are the leading causes of death in Goldens; earlier detection and therefore intervention could result in longer, happier lives for this breed. Additionally, understanding conserved risk-factors for age-related cancers may help identify potential drug development targets for both Goldens and humans.

Most of the methodology for building epigenetic clocks has involved using basic linear regressions and simple representations of methylation as single numbers. Loyal is leveraging the latest machine and deep learning models – in addition to representations of genomic data gleaned from natural language processing algorithms – to access the full richness of information available within the epigenome. We believe this will yield insights beyond age measurement and provide a more holistic view of the aging organism.

Quantifying the Aging Process: Loyal in-licenses mouse-canine-human homogeneous epigenetic clock from UCSD

Aging remains a challenging biological process to quantify. Designing effective aging therapeutics hinges on the ability to reliably measure it.



One promising strategy is assessing age-related changes to the 3D structure of DNA. Epigenetic clocks quantify these structural changes, using them as inputs to predict the biological age of the tissue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Epigenetics 101</h2>



In addition to the nucleotide sequence, the 3D structure of a DNA strand holds valuable information, too. The most common structural change to DNA is&nbsp;methylation&nbsp;&#8211; the addition of a methyl group to a cytosine base at a cytosine/guanine nucleotide pair (CpG site). Methylation changes the shape, and therefore the function, of certain areas of DNA; the methylation status of certain CpG sites change predictably with age.



These changes can be used to create epigenetic “clocks” to quantify the age of an animal or tissue. Just like DNA, methylation can be easily and cheaply sequenced. Different epigenetic clocks weight different combinations of CpG sites, often 1000s, to calculate the predicted age of an animal or tissue.







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The use of epigenetics in aging drug development</h2>



Loyal is developing drugs intended to extend lifespan (years of life) and healthspan (quality of life). However, it inevitably takes years to determine whether a potential aging drug actually impacts the aging process. Epigenetic clocks may allow one to predict the efficacy (or lack thereof) of a novel aging drug potentially years before measurable changes in healthspan and lifespan.



Put simply, a reliable epigenetic clock may help us understand if an animal is aging quickly or slowly in relation to its peers, and whether a specific intervention has affected that rate of aging.







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Loyal has licensed a novel clock and methodology from the Ideker Group at The University of California, San Diego.</h2>



This clock identified aging-relevant CpG sites that are conserved between mice, dogs and humans, laying the foundations for conserved aging quantification. In their Cell Systems publication[1], the Ideker Group showed that their epigenetic clock can determine, within one year, the chronological age of a dog. The paper also proposes a more accurate conversion of dog and human years, especially relevant given Loyal’s thesis that developing dog aging drugs will be a key step to developing human aging drugs.



In addition to determining the chronological age of a dog &#8211; especially important in the case of shelter dogs and others without birth records &#8211; this work out of the Ideker group may help:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Provide early evidence for potential future customers that an aging treatment is indeed slowing or reversing the aging process in their dog.</li>



<li>Speed up drug development iteration by use as a surrogate endpoint/aging biomarker in clinical trials.</li>



<li>Point to new aging targets by studying the specific structural changes to DNA and their downstream consequences.</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="757" src="https://blog-admin.loyalfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wang-et-al-1024x757.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-972" srcset="https://blog-admin.loyalfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wang-et-al-1024x757.webp 1024w, https://blog-admin.loyalfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wang-et-al-300x222.webp 300w, https://blog-admin.loyalfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wang-et-al-768x568.webp 768w, https://blog-admin.loyalfordogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/wang-et-al.webp 1402w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In addition, Loyal has partnered with the Morris Animal Foundation to investigate the potential use of DNA methylation changes to predict cancer onset in Golden Retrievers [2].</h2>



B-cell lymphoma and hemangiosarcoma are the leading causes of death in Goldens; earlier detection and therefore intervention could result in longer, happier lives for this breed. Additionally, understanding conserved risk-factors for age-related cancers may help identify potential drug development targets for both Goldens and humans.



Most of the methodology for building epigenetic clocks has involved using basic linear regressions and simple representations of methylation as single numbers. Loyal is leveraging the latest machine and deep learning models &#8211; in addition to representations of genomic data gleaned from natural language processing algorithms &#8211; to access the full richness of information available within the epigenome. We believe this will yield insights beyond age measurement and provide a more holistic view of the aging organism.



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Wang T et al. Quantitative Translation of Dog-to-Human Aging by Conserved Remodeling of the DNA Methylome. Cell Syst. 2020 Aug 26;11(2):176-185.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2020.06.006.</li>



<li>Morris Animal Foundation Partners with Loyal to Study Dogs’ Genetic Changes that Occur as They Age. June 7, 2021.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/article/loyal-dog-aging-study-golden-retriever" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/article/loyal-dog-aging-study-golden-retriever</a>.</li>
</ol>