Fatty15 Lands Best Longevity Supplement Brand of 2025

The Groundbreaking Discovery of C15:0 as a Longevity Nutrient Has Earned Global Health &
Pharma's Top Global Excellence Award in Longevity

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- What started as a surprising discovery while caring for older Navy dolphins resulted in an unlocked secret to longevity for humans. That secret led to the development of fatty15, a groundbreaking healthy aging C15:0 supplement that strengthens cells against age-related breakdown - and recent winner of Global Health & Pharma's Global Excellence Award as the Best Longevity Supplement Brand of 2025.

While longevity supplements have gained tremendous attention over the past year, appropriately defining "longevity supplements" that deliver relevant health benefits in humans has remained a challenge. This is because many supplements that tout longevity benefits are based on experiments that extended longevity in short-lived animals, including mice, worms, and flies.

"While helping to continually protect Navy dolphin health, we found that some older dolphins were aging healthier than others," said Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson, Seraphina's co-founder. "Our discoveries, funded by the Office of Naval Research, helped to explain not just why some dolphins are healthier agers, but how C15:0 is a natural evolutionary enabler of longevity."

C15:0 (also called pentadecanoic acid) is an odd-chain saturated fatty acid primarily present in milkfat as well as some types of fish. Dr. Venn-Watson and her team initially found that about 1 in 3 older Navy dolphins developed insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, dyslipidemia, and fatty liver disease. By applying metabolomics to study thousands of small molecules in the dolphins' archived serum and all-fish diets, they found that C15:0 was a top dietary predictor of the healthiest aging dolphins. Further, when dolphins were fed a higher-C15:0 diet, multiple clinically relevant biomarkers of long-term health improved.

Over the past decade since Dr. Venn-Watson's first discoveries, there have been over 100 peer-reviewed studies on the health benefits of C15:0 from research teams throughout the world. Many of these studies have built the support of C15:0 as a leading geroprotector, which is a molecule that can slow aging rates and meaningfully protect against aging-related breakdown. For many in the longevity community, a geroprotector is considered the holy grail of healthy aging.

The primary longevity-supporting role of C15:0 is as a goldilocks fatty acid that strengthens cell membranes against lipid peroxidation and age-related breakdown. This role is aligned with AJ Hulbert's Cell Membrane Pacemaker Theory of Aging, in which he found that the more sturdy the fatty acids in the cell membrane, the lower the systemic lipid peroxidation, and the longer a mammalian species' lifespan. As a sturdy fatty acid that lowers lipid peroxidation, C15:0 taps into an evolutionary tool long used to enable longevity.

Studies have also shown that pure C15:0 has 36+ cellular benefits that support long-term metabolic, cognitive, liver, immune, and red blood cell health. Pure C15:0 also enhances the human longevity regulating pathway by activating AMPK and inhibiting mTOR, as well as targets key hallmarks of aging by repairing mitochondrial function, lowering aging-related pro-inflammatory cytokines, and improving cellular signaling. In preclinical models, pure C15:0 has effectively protected metabolic, cardiovascular, liver, gut, immune, and red blood cell health; and meta-analyses of dozens of large prospective cohort studies have repeatedly shown that higher C15:0 levels are associated with better long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health. Further, seven randomized and controlled clinical trials have shown that increased C15:0 intake results in increased C15:0 levels and associated protection of liver, red blood cell, cholesterol, gut microbiome, vascular, and skin health.

"It is the totality of data that makes C15:0 so compelling as a leading longevity nutrient," said Dr. Nicholas Schork, Head of the National Institute on Aging's Longevity Consortium. "C15:0's robust dose-dependent mechanisms of action, cell-based and in vivo efficacies, pharmacokinetics, prospective cohort studies, and increasing clinical trials all support C15:0 as an emerging essential nutrient that we require to maintain our health as we age." In a head-to-head study with other leading longevity-enhancing compound candidates, Drs. Schork and Venn-Watson showed that pure C15:0 had more cell-based longevity-enhancing effects than rapamycin, metformin, and acarbose.

Due to the mounting science behind C15:0's role as an essential and longevity-supporting nutrient, the Office of Naval Research funded the development of a pure, bioavailable, and patented C15:0 supplement called fatty15. Fatty15 was launched by Seraphina in 2021 and has won numerous awards, including Nutritional Outlook's Best of the Industry Ingredient Supplier (2020), FastCompany's World Changing Idea in Wellness (2022, 2024), Newsweek Reader's Choice for Best Supplement Brand (2024), Mindful Award's Best Overall Supplement (2024, 2025), and the latest Global Health & Pharma's Global Excellence Award as the Best Longevity Supplement Brand of 2025.

Additionally, Seraphina Therapeutics was ranked as 2025 Inc. 5000's #1 fastest growing supplement company and the 5th fastest growing consumer product business in America, and Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson was named a 2025 CNBC Changemaker for her discovery of a C15:0 deficiency syndrome, called Cellular Fragility Syndrome, which has since been revalidated by a second independent team and may be accelerating aging, especially among younger populations.

"Our latest Global Excellence Award as the Best Longevity Supplement Brand of 2025 is a testament to a decade of science helping long-lived mammals, along with the Navy's dedication to improve healthy aging for dolphins and humans," said Dr. Venn-Watson. "Our mission continues to restore and optimize C15:0 levels, resulting in extended healthspans that help to democratize healthy aging and longevity for all."

Dr. Venn-Watson's inspiring C15:0 discovery story while helping dolphins is a TEDx talk, and the mounting science supporting C15:0 as an essential longevity nutrient is in her USA Today best-selling book, The Longevity Nutrient, published by Simon & Schuster earlier this year. The paperback will be released in March 2026.

About Seraphina Therapeutics, Inc.: Seraphina Therapeutics, Inc. is a health and wellness company dedicated to advancing global health through the discovery of essential fatty acids and micronutrient therapeutics. Through rigorous breakthrough science, the company develops fatty acid supplements to strengthen cells, keep mitochondria working, and advance cellular homeostasis to counter age-related breakdown. With its team of industry-leading scientists, Seraphina Therapeutics challenges long-held approaches to nutrition, enabling the creation of novel health products designed to support quality of life. For more information, please visit DiscoverC15.com and fatty15.com.

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SOURCE Seraphina Therapeutics