STAY.

THE SEARCH FOR A PILL THAT CAN HELP DOGS, AND EVENTUALLY HUMANS, LIVE LONGER

- Tom Simonite

CELINE HALIOUA DROPS
INTO A CROUCH AND GREETS BOCCE, A CHIHUAHUA-DACHSHUND MIX WITH SOULFUL BROWN EYES, like a long-lost friend. 'Oh my god, you're so beautiful!' she chirps. The two have just met in an upstairs room at Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, where light streams in through the open windows and urine occasionally streams onto the floor. About 12 elder dogs, none taller than a kneecap, putter around on the grey linoleum or nap on blankets. When Halioua kneels, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulder, Bocce rests his head blissfully in her lap.

A tragedy of human-canine relations is that a 10-year-old dog such as Bocce is elderly, while a 28-year-old person such as Halioua is in the prime of life. Bocce’s one of the lucky ones. Many dogs can only dream of living as long as he will because dog lifespan is inversely correlated with body size. It’s the opposite of the wider pattern in the animal kingdom, where elephants easily outlast mice, which in turn outlive mosquitoes. A Chihuahua can expect roughly 15 years of life; an Irish wolfhound or Great Dane around seven or eight.

Halioua hopes that the start-up whose name is emblazoned on her slim black T-shirt – Loyal – can start to fix this bug in humanity’s 14 000-year-plus wolf bioengineering project. The company, which she founded in 2019 and leads as CEO, is developing drugs to delay ageing in dogs and extend their healthy lifespan. She’s raised around $58 million (around R990 million) and has two drugs in development. In a few years, she hopes to have the first commercial drug – for any species – to state on the label that it delays ageing or extends lifespan. That alone would be a triumph, but Halioua sees it as a springboard to a still greater feat: creating similar drugs for humans.