Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner Are Investing in Anti-Aging Company Altos Labs to Help Humans 'Live Forever'

Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner are reportedly investing in a startup biotechnology firm aiming to discover a way to reverse aging.

Incorporated in the U.S. and the U.K. earlier this year, Altos Labs had raised at least $270 million to look into the possibility of a cell reprogramming technology to turn back aging in animals and eventually humans, Daily Mail reported.

Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner are not new to investing in labs that are focusing on anti-aging solutions. Bezos has previously invested in anti-aging firm Unity Biotechnology.

On the other hand, Yuri Milner has been funding longevity research through the Milky Way Foundation. He made a fortune on Facebook and Mail.ru. He invested in technology firms Facebook and cofounded internet company Mail.Ru.

Altos Labs

Altos Labs is pursuing biological reprogramming technology and will establish several institutes in places like Bay Area in San Diego, Cambridge in the U.K., and Japan, MIT Technology Review reported.

Biological reprogramming technology is a way to rejuvenate cells in the lab, and several scientists think it could be extended to revitalize animal bodies and ultimately prolonging human life.

Altos Labs made new hires, including Peter Walter. Walter's laboratory at the University of California in San Francisco is behind a molecule that shows remarkable effects on memory.

Wolf Reik is also joining the team. He recently resigned as the director of the Babraham Institute in the U.K. after he said he was taking a job with another research organization.

Altos Labs is recruiting university professors by offering salaries worth $1 million a year or more, with freedom from the hassle of applying for grants.

Manuel Serrano of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine said the company would pay him five to 10 times what he earns now.

Dr. Alejandro Ocampo noted that the concept is strong, but there is a lot of hype. He added that it's far away from translation. Ocampo used to work on Spanish biologist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte's team at the Salk Institute in California.

Belmonte is among the scientists said to be joining Altos Labs. Belmonte, known for his research in mixing human and monkey embryos, has predicted that human lifespans could be increased by 50 years.

Anti-Aging Companies

Aside from billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel also invested in South San Francisco-based United Biotechnology, a company aiming to extend human healthspan.

Anti-aging company Calico was also formed in 2013 by Google. Google co-founder Larry Ellison donated hundreds of millions of dollars to aging research, CNBC reported.

Other research companies diving into the aging study include BioAge, BioViva, The Longevity Fund, the Methuselah Foundation, and AgeX.

Nir Barzilai, author of "Age Later," said people who believe death is an option rather than an eventuality are given the right hacks. Barzilai is also the director of the Institute of Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

He noted that they expect $45 billion to be invested this year alone in life-extending science, New York Post reported.

David Sinclair, head of labs at Harvard Medical School and University of New South Wales in Australia, believes in extended life spans. He wrote in his book "Lifespan" that living until 150 may not be out of reach.

Altos Labs is being led by CEO Richard Klausner, a former chief of the National Cancer Institute. The lab is being created without the expectation of revenue. However, any anti-aging treatment it might discover would be worth billions.

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Written by: Mary Webber

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