Your brain burns enormous energy. Here's the hidden chemistry behind that power — and why it matters in Alzheimer's.
It's just 2% of your body weight but burns about 20% of your energy. Neurons fire nonstop — and every signal costs fuel. One-carbon metabolism is the network that keeps that fuel supply running.
Neurons fire nonstop, and each one draws on the same energy supply — all day, every day.
Mitochondria — thousands per cell — turn food and oxygen into ATP, the neuron's fuel.
The first and largest turbine on the ATP line. When it spins, energy flows.
Neurons rely on this same network to maintain key methyl donors and to keep the epigenetic marks that regulate gene expression in order. In Alzheimer's disease, this pathway is significantly impaired — and several hallmarks of the disease converge on the same point of failure: mitochondrial dysfunction.
The cycle can be disrupted by nutrient deficiencies — particularly folate and B12 — genetic variants, and the normal process of ageing. In Alzheimer's, there's a specific mechanism too.
In Alzheimer's, amyloid-β accumulation, tau pathology, and oxidative damage all converge here — and the turbine stalls.
ATP production falls, and the cell runs low on fuel.
Damaged parts leak reactive by-products that corrode the cell.
No fuel, rising damage, withering connections. This is the slow loss behind memory decline.
It's a chemical relay that passes single carbon atoms around the cell — the raw materials for repair and energy. It runs on everyday B vitamins.
The delivery truck that carries the carbon.
The hand-off helper that keeps the relay moving.
A building block the relay makes and reuses.
Energy returns, and the neuron holds up under attack.
This is the mechanism 1C-01 is built around. At OneCarbon, we developed 1C-01 as a probiotic approach to supporting this cycle. The details of how it works are subject to ongoing scientific and intellectual property development — more will be published as our research progresses.
We're investigating its efficacy in our PROFILE Phase I trial, and you can read the published science behind our work on the Research page.
At One Carbon, this pathway is our entire focus — turning the chemistry of cellular resilience into medicine.