Designing a Systems Architecture for Plant-Based Testosterone Enhancement Through Life Extension and CytoSolve Collaboration

Life Extension
Life Extension is a science-driven health and wellness company focused on developing evidence-based nutritional products grounded in rigorous biological research. Its formulation strategy emphasizes mechanistic understanding, ingredient quality, and translational validation to support healthy aging and endocrine function.

Challenge

Testosterone regulation is governed by a complex network of interacting molecular pathways involving synthesis, metabolism, feedback regulation, and degradation. Identifying plant-based ingredients that can safely and effectively enhance testosterone levels presents multiple challenges: large candidate ingredient spaces, limited mechanistic clarity for many bioactives, non-linear pathway interactions, and the need to optimize ingredient combinations and doses efficiently. Traditional experimental approaches alone are insufficient to systematically explore this complexity at scale.

How CytoSolve Helped

CytoSolve partnered with Life Extension to apply a three-phase systems architecture and in silico modeling workflow.

In the first phase, the CytoSolve® platform was used to identify an initial list of plant-based ingredients with potential relevance to testosterone regulation based on peer-reviewed literature. This list was refined to a filtered set through Life Extension–defined criteria, incorporating considerations such as safety, feasibility, and biological relevance.

In the second phase, CytoSolve® identified the molecular pathways governing testosterone production and metabolism. These pathways were translated into independently validated mathematical models, each representing a distinct biological mechanism. Using the CytoSolve® computational systems biology platform, the plurality of pathway models were dynamically integrated to form an integrative systems architecture of testosterone metabolism.

In the third phase, ingredients from the filtered list were evaluated in silico using the integrative testosterone model to assess their mechanistic efficacy. The most promising ingredients were then advanced to dose optimization using the CytoSolve Optimizer engine. This systematic process yielded three distinct ingredient formulations predicted to be highly effective at enhancing testosterone levels.

Key Benefits Realized

  • Systems-level understanding of testosterone metabolism and its regulatory pathways
  • Efficient narrowing of a large ingredient space to mechanistically relevant candidates
  • In silico testing of ingredient efficacy without early reliance on animal or human studies
  • Quantitative dose optimization to maximize biological impact
  • Identification of three distinct, optimized plant-based formulations
  • Scalable framework applicable to future endocrine and metabolic product development

Outcome

The Life Extension–CytoSolve collaboration resulted in the development of three unique, plant-based formulations designed to enhance testosterone levels through a rigorously constructed systems architecture. These formulations emerged from a structured, in silico workflow encompassing ingredient identification, mechanistic model development, and quantitative dose optimization. Clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of these formulations in human subjects are currently underway, demonstrating how CytoSolve® systems architecture enables translational, data-driven product innovation grounded in molecular biology.