Nearly 50% of Americans live with obesity, and the numbers keep rising
To date, treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders has focused on dieting and exercise. Yet most people who diet and exercise do not achieve sustained weight loss.
There is a third major mechanism essential for weight regulation: natural heat production, or “thermogenesis.” Thermogenesis burns calories as effectively as exercise does as we go about our usual routines. Our ancestors used thermogenesis to keep warm. But today, thermogenesis is inhibited by comfortable living temperatures.
Recent scientific breakthroughs at Equator Therapeutics have enabled pharmacological stimulation of thermogenesis to achieve sustained weight loss. We are now developing a first-in-class drug to reverse metabolic disorders.
We are targeting mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell
Mitochondria are the organelles in our cells that burn calories to power our bodies and keep us warm. In an experimental tour de force, we measured the tiny electrical currents that mitochondria use to generate heat. This allowed us to identify and characterize the proteins responsible for these currents.
Our unique high throughput assays have allowed us to identify an unprecedented number of thermogenic compounds. We are now utilizing our singular capacity to directly record the electrical currents that these compounds induce in mitochondria to identify the most selective and safe activators of thermogenesis.
Our methods & expertise also uniquely position us to modulate mitochondrial energy production more generally. Our long-term plans include programs to develop first-in-class drugs targeting several other important therapeutic mechanisms in mitochondria.
The foundations of our work
Meet our team
The team at Equator leverages our singular expertise in bioelectricity, computational chemistry, and high-throughput interrogation of mitochondrial physiology to develop a drug that activates our targets.
