A wave of biotech companies is looking to prove that it’s possible to slow down the aging process. Mountain View, California–based Rubedo Life Sciences is starting with the most outwardly visible sign: the skin.

The company’s experimental treatment is showing early promise that it may be able to reduce the appearance of aging, according to data the company presented at the Aging Research and Drug Discovery meeting in Boston earlier this month.

In a small clinical trial, Rubedo tested its topical cream on 11 people with atopic dermatitis, an inflammatory skin condition and the most common type of eczema. The drug targets a mechanism of cellular senescence, a biological state in which damaged or stressed cells permanently stop dividing but do not die. These senescent or “zombie” cells accumulate as people age and can release substances that contribute to inflammation and tissue damage, which contributes to disease.

After four weeks of using the cream, participants lowered the biological age of their skin by about two years, on average. That estimate was based on an aging “clock” designed by a different company, Mitra Bio, which performed an independent analysis on participants’ skin samples. One person in the trial had a reduction of more than 11 years in skin age. Separately, Rubedo found that its treatment was tied to a reduction in inflammation-related markers and a 10 percent increase in a type of collagen associated with skin elasticity and structure.

Biological or epigenetic age is an estimate of how well a person is aging compared to their calendar age.

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