Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has collected a panel of top scientists, including Nobel laureates, to launch Altos Labs. The primary goal of the company is to accomplish biological reprogramming. This is a method of rejuvenating cells after they have developed. In theory, the cells could then repair your body as it ages and maybe cure age-related illnesses like dementia.
Last year, Bezos invested in a biotech startup that would have hired Nobel winner Shinya Yamanaka, who transformed mature cells into younger stem cells capable of forming new cells. Although Yamanaka was to work for the firm as an unpaid consultant, further facts regarding the organization’s goals were readily available.
However, recently in a press release, the company has revealed how it will work and who will play what roles in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States, Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and Tokyo in Japan will be the company’s initial headquarters. The Institutes of Science, chaired by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a former Salk Institute professor, Wolf Reik, an honorary professor at Cambridge, and Peter Walter, a Howard Hughes Medical Center scientist, will each strive to address profound scientific questions.
Thore Graepel, a University College London professor and former Google Deep Mind research lead, will lead the company’s computational science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning functions. At the same time, the Institute of Medicine will translate knowledge gained about cell health and programming into transformative medicines.
Hal Barron, currently the Chief Scientific Officer at GlaxoSmithKline, Rick Klausner, former head of the National Cancer Institute, and Ann Lee-Karlon, former Senior Vice President at Genentech, make up the company’s management team.
In addition, its board of directors includes Frances Arnold, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on directed evolution of enzymes; Jennifer Doudna, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR gene-editing technique; and David Baltimore, who won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the interaction of viruses with the genetic material of cells.
The Bezos-backed startup also revealed that it had acquired more than $3 billion in investment, in addition to a workforce of renowned scientists and researchers.
Jeff Bezos isn’t the only billionaire who has invested in Alto Labs. Yuri Milner, a Russian-Israeli billionaire, is also developing Anti-aging technology.
However, it remains to be seen whether an all-star squad with vast pockets can truly cure aging. Is it an issue that can’t be solved with the greatest minds and a lot of money? However, it remains to be seen whether an all-star squad with vast pockets can truly cure aging. Is it an issue that can’t be solved with the greatest minds and a lot of money? Only time will tell.
