According to reports, Jeff Bezos is one of the company's top investors.
Introducing Altos Labs
The uber-wealthy are funding a new, somewhat obscure Silicon Valley company that specializes in anti-aging research.
According to MIT Technology Review, Altos Labs is a bioreprogramming tech company that is allegedly attracting major investors like Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, and Yuri Milner (Russian-Israeli billionaire). It is currently recruiting some of the most prominent scientists in the world to join it, promising them big salaries and free access to their anti-aging research.
Some of those joining will raise eyebrows.
Juan Carlos Izpisa Belmonte is a biologist from the Salk Institute in La Jolla (California), and one of the many scientists joining Altos. In 2017, he made headlines when he started research to create a human/pig hybrid. Shinya Yamanaka (a Nobel Prize-winning scientist for his research on aging reverse in cells) will be taking over as chair of Altos' scientific advisory board.
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Yamanaka, MIT Technology Review, stated that although there are many obstacles to overcome, there is still a lot of potential.
Immortal Billionaires
Biological reprogramming, a way to rejuvenate cells and possibly lead to immortality, is one method. There are many reprogramming startups, but none have the same backing as Altos Labs.
It's no surprise, then, that the super wealthy want to live as long and healthy as possible. It is true that no amount of money can buy a second of life. But it is still a mystery what the endgame for Altos Lab will be and how they will get there.
According to MIT Technology Review, there will not be any hard deadlines or goals for Altos researchers. The company will instead strive to create great science, whatever that may mean.
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Manuel Serrano, an ex-researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Spain, stated that the goal is to understand rejuvenation. Serrano, like many of his peers was attracted to Altos when they offered to pay him five-tenths of what he earns currently. Although the goal of having future revenue is a good idea, it's not the ultimate goal.
Altos Labs remains a mystery. It seems obvious that funding it is necessary because people don't want to die (billionaires included). The how is a little more complicated. A scarier question is how immortality will be unlocked.
READ MORE: Altos Labs is Silicon Valley's latest attempt to live forever [MIT Technology Review]
Here's more on immortality: An 11-year-old gets a Physics degree and says that he will use it to attain technological immortality
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