Pawsitive Progress: Celine Halioua's Journey to Enhancing Canine Longevity

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Time is the ultimate equalizer. Time takes, and time also gives. It’s one of the many things we have no control over. It’s why humans have always adored the idea of “the fountain of youth,” and why it’s been a consistent theme in movies and books. We all want more time.

This is especially the case for people who have experienced, or been affected by, cancer. I don’t think there’s one person reading this article that hasn’t been affected by cancer in some way. I know I have, and so has Celine Halioua.

Celine Halioua is the founder of a company called Loyal, today’s feature. But before I talk about what Loyal is, I want to give some background on Celine’s journey founding Loyal.

Let’s go back all the way to Celine’s college days. After her sophomore year at UT- Austin, she was awarded a fellowship with the Director of the Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Center at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM). During this summer she was spending in San Diego, she rented a room from a man called John*. Celine says John was her first “intergenerational friend.” I thought this was a strange term to define a friend, but I guess some people might find it weird for a young person to be friends with an older person who is not their grandparent.

Celine describes John so vividly in her blog, that I felt like I was getting to know him too. She recalls him being, “a tall slim man, with a full head of messy white hair, and a youthful, goofy smile framed and accentuated by his wrinkles.” He supported her during that summer, showing her the beauty of Southern California, and even taking her to the ER when she developed an ulcer. Even after that summer they stayed in touch, and when she was offered a second fellowship, she couldn’t wait to see John again.

But something was different the second time. John had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and the “goofy cheer.. had faded, its vacancy emphasized but his unfilled smile lines.” Celine recalls how John never let the cancer break him. But chemo does not discriminate, and it snuffed out some of that vibrancy he was known for. She says that his kindness, contrasted with the horrible way he died, is seared into her brain forever. And when she was staring at her test tubes in the lab, she was reminded that each one of those tubes represented a person experiencing the same horror she watched her friend go through.

“Cancer is only one of many terrifying diseases of age. Age-related diseases rob us of our memory and personality, our independence, our comfort, and our dignity.”

This is why Celine cares about longevity, and why she founded Loyal.

Loyal was founded in 2019 to help dogs everywhere live longer, and healthier lives. You might be wondering how she went from wanting to help humans with age-related diseases to dogs. But, Loyal is part of a company called Cellular Longevity, which is working to develop therapies that treat underlying causes of aging in general. Also, Loyal’s long term mission is to create breakthroughs for humans. But it’s much easier to start with dogs. We all know the idea that one human year is the equivalent seven dog years. Matt Kaeberline, a scientific adviser to Loyal noted, “the implication is that you can study the aging process in dogs seven to ten times faster than in humans.” In other words, because canine lives are shorter, the results of intervening in their longevity should be visible more quickly.

Loyal is developing two drugs that address the underlying causes of canine aging across all breeds and sizes. Their work is backed by decades of research and a team of experts in dog health and longevity. Their first drug, LOY-001 is intended for large and giant breed dogs. As a lover of giant dogs myself, I know that they live sometimes half the time of small breeds. Interestingly, with other animal species the reverse is true (think about elephants vs a bee). So, LOY-001 targets the biological mechanisms thought to cause this disparity. It’s a veterinarian-administered product given to your dog every three to six months. This product is projected to enter companion dog studies this year, and its estimated public launch is 2026.

Their second product, LOY-002, is intended to extend life and health span for older dogs of most breeds. (Their website says “all but the smallest breeds,” but they have a chihuahua-dachshund mix in their clinical trial, so I’m not totally sure which breeds would be potentially excluded from this classification.) LOY-002 takes the form of an affordable, (tasty) daily prescription pill, which targets improved metabolic fitness to extend pups’ number of healthy years. Since beginning their clinical studies in September of 2022, Loyal is actively recruiting for studies this year. You can sign up your pup here if you’re interested. LOY-002’s estimated launch is 2024, so set your Google alerts because we could be getting some updates on this soon.

This all sounds amazing, right? Who doesn’t want their fur babies to live longer, healthier lives? But, during my initial research, I did have some ethical questions around testing these drugs. But, Loyal was way ahead of me. All the animals in their clinical trials are “companion animals,” aka real pets and not lab animals. “Pet parents want to help other pet parents,” so all of the pups in these trials were volunteered by real pet parents that wanted to, “contribute to science, even if it was too late for their own dog to have a longer, healthier life.”

I think Loyal is doing some really interesting, almost sci-fi-esque, research and development. From the cute puppy photos on their website, to their company’s values posted here, you can tell all their hard work and passion comes from the heart. My favorite value that Celine has for Loyal, and one that I want to end this article on, is kindness. She notes that “great business (wo)men do not need to be ruthless - you can execute excellently with kindness.”

Businesses should be good. They should have good values, they should be run by good people, and they should bring more goodness into the world. I don’t think this is naive. I firmly believe that it’s up to each one of us to actively create the world we want to live in, and I want to challenge all of you to lead by example. Helping those around you doesn’t have to be as grand as creating a company that helps people (or dogs) live longer. It could start as small as holding the door open for a stranger. So, today and everyday, let’s each find a way to spread kindness.

If you want to support Loyal, check out their website. You can also follow them on Instagram for updates, or just for the cute dog pics, I do.

*not his real name for privacy reasons

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