Heart disease still kills nearly 20 MILLION people every year worldwide — roughly 1 person every 1.5 seconds. — But what if medicine could move beyond simply slowing plaque buildup…and actually REMOVE toxic oxidized cholesterol from arteries? — Dr. Matthew “Oki” O’Connor, CEO and Co-Founder, Cyclarity Therapeutics.

In the time it will take you watch this episode, over 2,000 people around the world will die from diseases driven by arterial plaque. But what if we could actually remove the toxic cholesterol already trapped inside arteries?

Today we’re diving into one of the biggest unsolved problems in medicine and aging: how do you actually remove arterial plaque instead of merely slowing its progression?

Cardiovascular disease remains the world’s leading killer, despite decades of statins, anti-inflammatory drugs, and newer RNA-based therapies. Most existing treatments help manage cholesterol and reduce risk, but very few directly target the toxic debris already embedded inside plaques.

But what if we could literally extract some of the most dangerous oxidized cholesterol molecules from the body?

My guest today is Dr. Matthew ‘Oki’ O’Connor, Ph.D. — CEO and Co-Founder of Cyclarity Therapeutics (https://cyclaritytx.com/), a biotech company developing engineered cyclodextrin molecules designed to bind and remove 7-ketocholesterol, or 7KC — a toxic oxidized cholesterol strongly implicated in atherosclerosis, inflammation, plaque instability, and even broader age-related diseases.

Just recently, the company presented first-in-human clinical data at the American Heart Association Vascular Discovery Scientific Sessions showing dose-dependent urinary excretion of 7KC — potentially the first clinical evidence that this toxic molecule can be safely mobilized and removed from the human body.

We’ll discuss what 7KC actually is, why oxidized cholesterol may be a root driver of cardiovascular disease, how engineered cyclodextrins work like molecular “sponges,” what the new human data really shows — and what it would mean if medicine could move from slowing plaque progression to truly reversing it.