A startup firm backed by an artificial intelligence (AI) industry leader aims to expand human lifespan by 10 years.
Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind the now-famous ChatGPT, a breakthrough language AI. He used $180 million of his personal wealth to fund Retro Biosciences and works closely with Joe Betts-LaCroix, the company’s CEO and co-founder. Betts-LaCroix notes the company is looking for a scalable and cost-effective aging solution instead of one that’s only available to the mega-rich.
The interest in longevity follows several breakthroughs, including a California firm extending the lifespan of mice after replacing the animal’s plasma with saltwater and albumin. Other firms continue to make strides in understanding aging at a cellular level and proposing ways humans can reduce disease and other age-related maladies.
Retro Biosciences’ efforts include ways to rejuvenate the body’s T cells, which fight cancer and infections. It can remove these cells, rework them in a lab and then add them back to the patient.
Some anti-aging technology firm CEOs see their innovations as a way to combat the high costs of an aging population. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data noted in 2020 that 90% of the nation’s $4.1 trillion in healthcare spending went toward chronic and mental health conditions. A considerable amount of this expense goes toward treating the elderly, and researchers believe delaying aging could reduce the incidence or length of certain diseases, which in turn could reduce spending.
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Conquering Energy And Aging
Altman founded the location-based social app Loopt in 2005 at the age of 19. He led the company through a venture capital round and ultimately sold it for more than $43 million. From there, he moved to startup accelerator Y Combinator, rising through the ranks to become president of the company until leaving in 2019. He made several investments in Y Combinator companies like Airbnb and Stripe, providing him with a consistent stream of funds he now uses for his startup investments.
Altman has said he put most of his liquid net worth into Retro Biosciences and Helion Energy Inc., a firm pursuing the world’s first low-cost clean fusion energy. Helion energy is working toward a magneto-inertial fusion technology that it contends will provide clean and safer energy at a global scale.
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Longevity Attracting Billionaires
The very rich have long been interested in lifespan extension technology. The founders of Alphabet Inc., Bill Gates, Richard Branson and others continue to fund longevity and lifespan firms and research.
Altos Labs Inc. is a startup longevity firm that took in $3 billion in funding from Amazon.com Inc. Founder Jeff Bezos and other wealthy investors. The company is using cellular rejuvenation technology — similar to earlier experiments in mice — to reduce aging and related diseases. It and other longevity firms hire top researchers from academia and related industries to spur innovation and turn science theory into medical advances. The company is a research-driven institution and does not have a specific product in its pipeline.
Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin funded life extension firm Calico, another group taking a research approach to longevity and the human lifespan. The company employs a wide range of researchers looking at the biological process of aging in various creatures, including mice, worms and yeast. They are also studying human genetic data sets, including the metabolic and physiological markers that happen as people age.
Entrepreneur Sean Parker founded the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, which funds immunological cures for cancer. The organization’s goal is to train human cells to better identify and stop cancer cells before they turn into malignancy.
Billionaire investors will continue to invest in aging and longevity startups in pursuit of innovations that can improve people’s lives and possibly prevent many diseases.
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