Sierra Sciences, Inc. (SSI) is a biotechnology company organzied around development medicines and therapies that could reverse the effects of human aging; enabling people to live longer lives, with health and vigor, free of many of the debilitating effects of old age. At the forefront of efforts to uncover the genetic factors that determine human lifespan and design appropriate interventions to extend and enhance human lifespan and healthspan. The effort hasbeen to develop products to include telomerase inducing chemicals that activate the telomerase gene without killing the cells: a medicine that will activate the expression of telomerase in normal somatic cells. SSI's founder and Vice President Research & Development, Dr. William H. Andrews, was one of the principal discoverers of the telomerase gene. He was awarded 2nd place as "National Inventor of the Year" in 1997 for this discovery, and his name appears on numerous related patents and publications. Under Dr. Andrews' direction, SSI has discovered and filed additional patent applications on many key elements of the transcriptional regulation of telomerase, including DNA transcription factor binding sites and transcription factors. SSI has pursued multiple approaches towards its goal of transiently expressing telomerase in normal cells, including high-throughput screening and other drug discovery efforts.
