The true measure of longevity - read from the sugar molecules on your own antibodies.
GlycanAge, the Newcastle-registered, Croatian-founded biotech turning two decades of glycobiology into a home test. - brand mark, company assets
Ask most people how old they are and they will read you a number off a birth certificate. GlycanAge argues that number is close to useless as a measure of health. Two people born the same year can be aging at very different speeds, and the difference shows up in an unlikely place - the glycans, or sugar molecules, attached to the antibodies patrolling your immune system.
GlycanAge is a UK-registered, Croatian-founded biotech that turns that idea into a product. From a finger-prick blood sample of about four drops, its lab analyzes the pattern of glycans on immunoglobulin G (IgG) - the workhorse antibody - and returns an estimate of how fast a person is aging at the molecular level. The company calls it "the earliest readable signal" of immune-system aging, detectable years before changes show up in standard bloodwork.
The science is not new marketing dressed as biology. It rests on roughly two decades of glycobiology led by Professor Gordan Lauc, whose research linking glycans to chronic inflammation drew an estimated $40 million in grant funding before it became anything you could buy. Chronic, low-grade inflammation is one of the mechanisms that quietly drives aging, and glycans sit close to it.
What makes the company interesting is not only the biomarker but the decision to commercialize it. For years the research lived in journals. In 2020 the Lauc family formed GlycanAge Ltd to move it out of the lab and into people's mailboxes - a test anyone curious about their healthspan could order online.
The result reacts to how you live. Sleep, stress, diet and exercise leave a glycan signature, so a customer who changes habits and retests can watch a biological-age number move. That feedback loop is the whole pitch: a dial you can actually turn.
"Scientific breakthroughs rarely make an impact on healthcare simply by existing. They only change care once they become visible, trusted and easy to use."
The test is bought online, direct to consumer, and shipped to the door.
A simple finger-prick yields four drops of blood - no clinic visit required.
The sample returns to the lab in a prepaid envelope for glycan analysis.
In a few weeks you receive a biological-age report and full glycan profile.
Every test includes a consultation call with a longevity specialist.
An at-home biological-age test analyzing IgG glycans from a finger-prick sample, returned as a personalized report.
A one-to-one consultation with a longevity specialist to interpret results and shape lifestyle interventions.
Annual, bi-annual and two-test options so you can retest and measure whether changes are working. HSA/FSA eligible.
Glycan tests being built for hospital use across stress, cardiometabolic, weight and hormonal health.
Most biological-age tests read DNA-methylation "epigenetic clocks." GlycanAge bets on a different biomarker - one it argues responds more directly to how you live.
Competition includes epigenetic-age players such as TruDiagnostic and Elysium Health, plus the broader field of longevity diagnostics. GlycanAge's differentiation is the biomarker itself - and the claim that it is more actionable.
Seed (2024) led by LAUNCHub Ventures & Kadmos Capital. 2025 round led by Fifth Quarter Ventures, with Guinness Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, South Central Ventures, Impetus Capital, Vesna Deep Tech VC and Lightfield Equity. Figures are approximate and drawn from public reports.
"Our goal is to make glycan testing part of standard preventive diagnostics, where everyone over the age of 30 can access it through their healthcare provider."
Leads strategy, growth and operations - translating her father's science into an accessible consumer tool.
A global pioneer in glycobiology whose two decades of research underpins the entire product.
Leads technology, building the platform and data systems behind the glycome analysis.
The team of roughly 53 is backed by scientific and medical advisory boards that include genetic-epidemiologist Professor Tim Spector and gerontology professor Andrea Maier.
Professor Gordan Lauc starts pioneering research linking glycans to inflammation and aging.
The Lauc family launches GlycanAge Ltd to commercialize glycan-based biological-age testing.
Seed funding led by LAUNCHub Ventures and Kadmos Capital advances personalized preventative care.
A larger round led by Fifth Quarter Ventures funds hospital pilots and lab-developed tests.
GlycanAge occupies the fast-growing intersection of consumer wellness and clinical diagnostics. On one side sit at-home health brands selling insight and motivation; on the other, hospitals and preventive-care systems that want validated tests. GlycanAge is trying to walk from the first toward the second.
Its 2025 raise was explicitly framed around that move - developing lab-developed tests for hospital deployment and running pilots. A partnership with St. Catherine Specialty Hospital in Zagreb and a tie-up with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology to build a Saudi lab signal the ambition to reach beyond direct-to-consumer sales.
The market tailwind is real: interest in longevity and healthspan has pulled biological-age testing into the mainstream. GlycanAge's wager is that a biomarker with decades of research and a large proprietary dataset can survive the scrutiny of clinicians, not just the enthusiasm of early adopters.
Whether glycans become as routine as a cholesterol check - the founders' stated goal - is unproven. But the company has picked a defensible lane: one deep biomarker, backed by science, aimed squarely at prevention.
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Sources: glycanage.com, EU-Startups, Longevity.Technology, The Recursive, Athletech News, Crunchbase and company materials. Funding figures are approximate and drawn from public reports; details may change. This profile is editorial and not affiliated with or endorsed by GlycanAge.