You only get two sets of teeth. Then a protein called USAG-1 tells your jaw to stop making more. A Japanese team has been testing a drug to block it since October 2024. Phase 1 finished without serious side effects in February. The trial began at Kyoto University Hospital. Thirty men signed up, ages 30 to 64, each missing at least one back tooth. They each got a single IV dose of TRG-035, an antibody made by Toregem Biopharma, a Kyoto University spinoff. The drug shuts off USAG-1. With that protein out of the way, your jaw’s growth signals start telling sleeping tooth cells to wake up. It started with mice. In 2007, researchers found a strain born with extra teeth and traced the cause to a missing USAG-1 gene. The protein was the brake. By 2021, Dr. Katsu Takahashi’s lab in Osaka had used a USAG-1-blocking antibody to grow new teeth in ferrets born without their full set. The results landed in the journal Science Advances. They later got the same effect in dogs. The next phase targets children aged 2 to 6 born missing six or more permanent teeth. The condition affects around 1 in 1,000 people. Japan’s Ministry of Health has already given TRG-035 a fast-track status reserved for rare conditions. Phase 3 trials run through 2029. Toregem wants the drug on the market by 2030, with adult tooth loss from injury or decay as the longer-term target. Around 120 million Americans are missing at least one tooth. A single dental implant in the US runs $3,000 to $6,000, and full-mouth restoration can hit $60,000. The global dental implant market is more than $5 billion a year. Every dollar of it goes to titanium screws drilled into bone. Toregem is testing whether your jaw will grow new teeth on its own once USAG-1 is taken offline.

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