Jeff Bezos made headlines this summer thanks to the fact that he was part of the crew of the first space flight of his space company Blue Origin , but it seems that the former CEO of Amazon is not satisfied with traveling to space but has also now looked at how to lengthen people’s lives by becoming an investor in a new (and secret) company investigating something many dream of.
Jeff Bezos invests in a new technology that lengthens your life
The Amazon founder has now invested in a new research-based “startup” called Altos Labs, which is dedicated to discovering how to reverse the aging process , MIT Tech Review reported, citing people “informed by the company.”
This is not the first time for the richest man in modern history , who apparently does not want to grow old. Bezos has invested in anti-aging research before , specifically in 2018 he invested in a San Francisco biotech company called Unity Technologies that aims to develop anti-aging therapies.
The goal is to do “great science”
Altos Labs was founded earlier this year and has raised at least $ 270 million (about € 227 million) to develop biological reprogramming technology. The startup of the company aims to find a way to rejuvenate cells in the laboratory that some scientists believe can be applied to whole animal bodies. From there, the next step could be to extend human life.
The company runs its activities in complete secrecy but is known to be hiring academics who will investigate how cells age and what can be done to slow down the aging process so that our tissues age more slowly. Offering scientists a $ 1 million annual salary , Altos Labs will fund researchers without an imminent expectation of goods or profits, at least initially, with the sole objective of doing “big science,” and plans to open several institutes in places like the Bay Area, San Diego, Cambridge, UK and Japan. If their research is successful, any anti-aging treatment that scientists could discover would be worth billions.
The goal of Altos Labs is to use biological reprogramming , which is the process of “instructing cells” or introducing elements that allow cells to return to a younger embryonic stage , effectively reversing their entire aging process.
A Spaniard in Alto Labs
Shinya Yamanaka, who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of reprogramming , will serve on the company’s scientific advisory board as an unpaid senior scientist, and Spanish biologist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte , who became known for Leading a team that implanted human cells into monkey embryos and predicted that humans could live for another 50 years has reportedly joined the company as well.
Big fortunes are interested in longevity
The quest to achieve immortality and reverse aging is an area of science that has attracted many of the world’s richest tech entrepreneurs, including Google co-founder Larry Page, who helped found Calico Labs , a longevity company. targeting immortality , and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel also invested in Unity Biotechnology . It is clear that scientists are actively looking for ways to turn back the aging clock and make the idea of death obsolete in the next 40-100 years, even though the question would also arise, does anyone really want to live forever? ?
