Merdeka.com – The world’s richest man Jeff Bezos and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner are funding a biotechnology startup that aims to find ways to delay aging.
The company Altos Labs, which was founded in the United States and Britain earlier this year, has raised at least $270 million to look at the potential of cell reprogramming technology to delay aging in animals, and possibly humans too.
Quoted from the Daily Mail, Monday (6/9) the initial hiring at Altos Labs provides an indication of the types of anti-aging techniques that the lab at the company may be researching.
They include Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, who pioneered research on cell reprogramming, won him the 2012 Nobel Prize for the research.
Yamanaka will participate voluntarily on Altos’ scientific advisory board, according to the MIT Technology Review report, which details the formation of Altos.
The other experts who will participate with Altos, namely Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a Spanish biologist working at the Salk Institute in California, who has pioneered research on cell turnover.
In 2016, Belmonte demonstrated the embryonic stem cell technique by Yamanaka and applied it to mice, which show signs of age reversal.
Then there is also another expert, namely Dr. Steve Horvath, who developed the marker, which can accurately measure aging in humans and animals.
Any anti-aging research will need a ‘biological clock’ to measure the effectiveness of the techniques.
Bezos has previously invested in anti-aging company Unity Biotechnology. Meanwhile, Milner, with his income of around USD 4.8 billion, invests in Facebook, and co-founder of the internet company, Mail.Ru.
Over the past year, Milner has also funded anti-aging research through the Milky Way Foundation.
The MIT Technology Review report says that recently, a plan emerged to accelerate anti-aging research by forming well-funded companies, and to attract experts with salaries in excess of $1 million per year.
Other experts said to be working with Altos include a researcher at the University of California, Dr. Peter Walter. Walter researched molecules that affect memory.
Dr. Manuel Serrano, of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, will also join. He revealed to the media that Altos would pay him up to 10 times what he currently earns.
Altos, is reportedly being developed without expecting revenue, although any anti-aging treatment that might be invented will be worth billions.
“The goal is to understand rejuvenation,” Serrano said.
“I would say the idea of having future income exists, but it’s not an immediate goal,” he explained.
