Searching for Secrets In High- Altitude DNA

Variant Bio is hunting for rare genes that its researchers hope to turn into drugs and therapies, including some Covid-relevant ones

- Jeff Muskus

The Sherpa people living at high altitudes in Nepal and the Himalayas have a genetic trait that puzzles and fascinates scientists. They’re able to lead a healthy, active life with blood oxygen levels far below what most humans need to function properly. Whereas other people in high altitudes have adapted by boosting their oxygen to typical levels over time, the Sherpa have gene variants that let them live in what should be a hypoxic, or oxygen-starved, state. “They don’t suffer any ill health effects,” says geneticist Stephane Castel. “It’s incredible.”

Castel is a co-founder of Variant Bio, a startup that’s spent the past couple of years scouring the planet for genetic outliers. His team is betting that by sequencing such people’s DNA, Variant will be able to untangle the root causes of desirable traits— superior metabolism, eyesight, immune response— and synthesize drugs and other therapies that could pass some of these benefits on to the rest of us. If Variant’s software and scientific analysis can pinpoint the right bits of genetic code, the company will begin the painstaking, multiyear process of trying to develop drugs and therapies based on that data.