Bezos-backed Altos Labs Exits Stealth with All-Star Team! What's Next?
Channel: Lifespan News
Date: 2022-01-21

We first told you about whispers of the (likely) Jeff Bezos-backed longevity company Altos Labs in September of 2021. Now they are exiting stealth mode and this secretive company is secret no more. They’ve announced billions in funding, and have used it to assemble an all-star team with the goal of reversing disease. But what's next?

Our episode in September told you that Altos Labs was backed by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, and would have the goal of bringing cellular reprogramming to humans. Bezos and Milner were not mentioned in Altos Labs’ announcement press release, but it looks like their money may have been - Altos has stated that they have $3 Billion dollars in fully committed funding.

They’re putting this money to use right away, building an impressive team that includes Hal Barron, who will be leaving his post as the Chief Scientific Officer at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to become the CEO of Altos Labs. Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka will serve as senior scientific advisor to Altos, which makes sense since the company is likely to make use of the Yamanaka factors that he helped pioneer, and which won him a Nobel Prize in 2012.

Jennifer Doudna, who is also a Nobel Prize winner for her work with CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, will serve on the Board of Directors. PIs include Steve Horvath, the researcher known for developing the Horvath aging clock, and Morgan Levine, who is leaving her current role as director of the Yale University's School of Medicine’s Laboratory for Aging in Living Systems.

One lingering question is that, if billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner are indeed linked to this company, as has been widely reported, why are they completely absent from the press release and website? The press release says that the funding is “from renowned company builders and investors”, but it doesn’t list any names. Is this a strategic decision, and Altos Labs is looking to downplay their involvement? If so, possible reasons could be so that the Bezos name and brand don’t overshadow the very important scientific work, or in hopes that the conspiracy theories and vitriol often directed at billionaires such as Bezos don’t, by extension, impact society’s view of healthy life extension.

I think those conspiracy theories are going to exist regardless, and that longevity science is bound to get caught up in them. It’s up to us and the many science-based, rationalist, life extensionists in these communities to fight back against misinformation and make sure that, regardless of what anyone thinks about billionaires, we recognize the importance of, and benefits of, longevity science.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
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Altos Labs Website - https://altoslabs.com/

Press Release “Altos Labs launches with the goal to transform medicine through cellular rejuvenation programming” - https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/altos-labs-launches-with-the-goal-to-transform-medicine-through-cellular-rejuvenation-programming-301463541.html

LSN Episode on Altos Labs from September 2021 - https://youtu.be/w11M5OMU4so

Hal Barron GSK - https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/about-us/board-of-directors/dr-hal-barron/

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The opinions of the hosts and subjects of this video do not necessarily reflect the view of lifespan.io.