Biological age assessment has become the core pillar of preventive medicine, longevity, and biohacking. At the heart of this scientific revolution, GlycanAge has set a clear mission for this decade: bringing glycan analysis to the world to make personalized preventative healthcare a reality for everyone. Born from a unique partnership between the academic expertise of Professor Gordan Lauc (a global pioneer in glycobiology) and the entrepreneurial vision of his daughter Nikolina Lauc (CEO), the company translates 30 years of complex science into an actionable health-tracking tool. To understand how these molecules dictate our immune resilience long before the first symptoms appear, we sat down with Nikolina Lauc, the CEO of GlycanAge.
From fundamental research to a personal awakening
Before becoming a rapidly growing international startup, GlycanAge was the result of three decades of fundamental research led in Croatia by Professor Gordan Lauc. However, it was the intersection of this academic rigor and a generational realization that turned laboratory science into an accessible consumer tool.
Sogevity: GlycanAge was built on more than 30 years of glycobiology research. Can you tell us the story behind the company and what inspired the mission to make biological aging measurable?
Nikolina Lauc : GlycanAge all started in a small research lab in Croatia. My father, Gordan Lauc, dedicated his entire career to understanding glycans and their role in aging and inflammation. He mentioned turning science into a product when I was 19 but back then nobody knew what its application would be like.
My first personal testing experience was a far cry from what we have today. I was 24 chronologically and had to go to the lab where they literally drew my blood and wait six months for my result. It came back at 20. A year later I tested again, and it had gone up to 21. I remember being genuinely upset that I had aged a year. I was 25 chronologically, but something had shifted, and I knew right then and there that I didn’t like it.
At the time I was working at a real estate startup, and the stress was immense. There were a few of us and we were all on the brink of burnout, and with that came gut issues, stress eating, constantly craving sugar just for a kick of energy. That result made it personal for me in a way that no amount of scientific reading could. It connected the data to real life.
That’s ultimately what GlycanAge is built to do, to tell you something meaningful about your health that you can act on.
The challenge of inflammaging: quantifying the invisible
The term “inflammaging”—the combination of low-grade chronic inflammation and aging—is on everyone’s lips in the longevity ecosystem. Yet, while acute inflammation is easy to spot, this silent wear and tear long remained impossible to track effectively.
Sogevity: Chronic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” is increasingly seen as one of the key drivers of aging and age-related disease. Why has this process been so difficult to measure until now?
Nikolina Lauc : I wouldn’t say it was about the level of difficulty but more about understanding how key chronic inflammation is to biological aging. Inflammation is a fundamental biological process that manifests in two distinct forms. Acute inflammation is the body’s defense mechanism against injury, infection, and damage. But if it persists beyond its protective role, it transforms into chronic inflammation, and that is where the real long-term threat lies. Chronic inflammation involves the constant production of inflammatory molecules and an over-activation of the immune system, which gradually creates an environment suited for various health problems. Surprisingly, three out of every five deaths are tied to chronic inflammatory diseases.
In the context of aging, chronic inflammation is a natural part of the process. And while aging itself is inevitable, we have the power to shape its quality. Daily choices, diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and the interventions you make, all influence levels of chronic inflammation and shape how that journey unfolds.
What was missing was a biomarker that reflects the cumulative state of the immune system over time, a sustained record of inflammatory activity. That is exactly what IgG glycans provide.
Decoding glycans: the switches of our immune system
For newcomers, glycobiology can seem abstract. Yet, glycans represent one of the four essential building blocks of life, alongside DNA, lipids, and proteins. They act as a real-time dashboard of our biological resilience.
Sogevity: For readers discovering glycobiology for the first time, what exactly are glycans, and why are they such a powerful indicator of immune health and biological age?
Nikolina Lauc : Glycans are complex carbohydrates – sugars – which makes people assume they are simple, but they are anything but that. They are sophisticated modifications that sit on our proteins and fundamentally change how the body functions. What is remarkable about them is that they capture something neither genetics nor environment alone can tell you: what is actually happening inside your body right now, and where your health is headed.
We measure the glycans attached to IgG, the most common antibody in our blood. Depending on which glycan is attached, IgG can behave in a pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory way, and that balance is essentially a live readout of your immune system’s condition. As that balance shifts toward chronic inflammation over time, biological aging accelerates.
What sets glycans apart from other biomarkers is that they are dynamic. They turn over roughly every 12 weeks, so they are always reflecting your current biology rather than your past. That means when someone makes a real change, addresses a hormonal imbalance, loses weight, reduces stress, the glycans move with it. That is what makes GlycanAge genuinely useful in practice: it does not just give you a number, it gives you a signal you can track and act on.
Scientific standards in the jungle of longevity testing
Between epigenetic clocks tracking DNA methylation and telomere length measurements, the biological age testing market is exploding. In this competitive landscape, GlycanAge stands out through clinical validation and rigorous technical precision.
Sogevity: Many biological age tests are emerging today. What makes GlycanAge different from other biomarkers or longevity testing approaches currently on the market?
Nikolina Lauc : The biological age space is growing quickly, and I welcome that because it means the conversation around proactive health is gaining more popularity. But not all tests are measuring the same thing, and the differences are clinically significant.
GlycanAge takes a different approach by measuring the functional state of the immune system. It behaves more like a dynamic health signal than a static estimate, with more than 30 years of it, over 350 publications, validation across more than 300,000 samples from diverse populations. GENOS, the glycobiology institute behind the test, is one of the leading centers for this work globally. We are, to our knowledge, the only company working with glycans in this way, which means we bring a level of scientific depth and specificity that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere in this market.
We also take accuracy extremely seriously. Our test analyzes four blood spot samples, not because all four are strictly necessary, but as an internal scientific verification to ensure results are highly precise. We maintain a margin of approximately one year when retested multiple times. When someone is making health decisions based on a result, that level of detail matters.
Flipping the paradigm: from reactive medicine to absolute prevention
The true goal of biohacking and longevity medicine is not to treat diseases once they arrive, but to detect shifts in our biological trajectory years before the first clinical signs emerge. This is where the predictive power of glycans changes the game.
Sogevity: Your research suggests glycan changes can appear years before symptoms or disease become visible. How could this transform the future of preventive and personalized healthcare?
Nikolina Lauc : Our current healthcare system is largely structured to respond to diseases once they’ve arrived. By then, the window for meaningful prevention has often already passed.
What glycan research has shown us is that the biological signal of this process appears years before disease becomes visible. That changes everything about how healthcare could be practiced. Instead of waiting for a diagnosis and managing the consequences, we could detect the trajectory early and intervene at the cause.
For personalized medicine, this is equally transformative. Because glycans respond to interventions, we can begin to understand not just that someone is aging faster, but what might specifically help them reverse that trajectory. We’ve seen this across studies on weight loss, hormone therapy, and lifestyle change. Our mission is for preventive healthcare to become the norm, not a luxury, but the standard of care. We genuinely believe that is achievable, and that glycobiology is one of the most important scientific tools for getting us there.
The horizon of glycobiology and clinical integration
As academic science definitively leaves the labs to join clinical practices, the future of longevity is shaped by international events designed to train tomorrow’s practitioners to turn chronic inflammation data into action.
Sogevity: Looking ahead, what role do you believe glycobiology and biological age testing will play in the future of longevity science and proactive health management?
Nikolina Lauc : As chronic diseases continue to burden healthcare systems worldwide, the value of early detection and prevention will only grow. GlycanAge stands at the forefront of it, offering a scientifically validated approach to identifying risk years before traditional diagnostics can.
This June, we are hosting our Inflammaging in Clinical Practice conference in Dubrovnik, bringing together the specialists, researchers, and clinical partners who have been part of the glycobiology since the beginning, alongside new voices we are excited to welcome into this conversation. Hosted within ISABS and the prestigious Mayo Clinic, for me, that event represents something meaningful: the science moving from research into practice, and a growing community of clinicians who believe, as we do, that healthcare should be preventive rather than reactive.
We don’t just want people to live longer. We want them to live better, healthier, and be more present, for the people and experiences that matter most to them. That is what we are building toward.
Going further: Understanding the GlycanAge ecosystem
The GlycanAge approach relies on a key three-fold strategy to permanently transform our relationship with health: global accessibility of testing, widespread education on chronic inflammation risks, and seamless integration into existing healthcare standard systems.
Their technology currently serves three main areas:
- For personal use: An at-home blood spot testing kit that allows individuals to discover their biological age and actively track the direct impact of lifestyle modifications (diet, sleep, stress management).
- For healthcare providers: Clinical tools enabling practitioners to integrate glycan analysis into routine assessments to personalize interventions, specifically in areas like weight management, hormone therapy, or longevity medicine.
- For research: The largest glycan research program in the world, partnering with top universities to continue decoding the intricate links between inflammation and biological resilience.
Practical information and resources
To learn more about their scientific programs or to order your biological age assessment, explore GlycanAge’s official platforms:
- Official website: https://glycanage.com
- Upcoming clinical event: Inflammaging in Clinical Practice conference in Dubrovnik (hosted within ISABS and Mayo Clinic). Registration details and practitioner schedules are available directly through their resource center.
- Support and inquiries: For questions regarding client tests or clinical partnerships, the scientific support team can be reached at support@glycanage.com.
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