Altos Labs

Altos Labs is a biotechnology company that uses cellular reprogramming to develop therapeutic drugs for longevity.

History

2021: Attracting investment from DST Global and Yuri Milner

In early September 2021, it became known that Yuri Milner invested in a technology developer to combat aging called Altos Labs. Most likely, the investment deal was concluded through the DST Global fund owned by a Russian entrepreneur.

According to the MIT Tech Review, in October 2020, a large group of scientists went to Yuri Milner's mansion in the Los Altos Hills above Palo Alto for a two-day scientific conference, and others joined them by teleconference on a common topic, how biotechnology can be used to make people younger. It was this meeting that led to the creation of a new ambitious anti-aging company called Altos Labs. The company is engaged in biological reprogramming technology, a method of cell rejuvenation in the laboratory, which, according to some scientists, can be extended to the revitalization of entire organisms of various animals, which can ultimately extend human life.

The new company Altos Labs, registered in the USA and the UK in early 2021, will create several institutes in countries such as the USA, Great Britain and Japan, and is recruiting a large staff of university scientists promising generous pay.

Yuri Milner invested in technology developer to combat aging Altos Labs

Some people familiar with the situation told the publication that its investors include Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the world. Technology Review also confirmed that Yuri Milner invested in Altos Labs through a separate fund.

People familiar with the process of creating Altos say that Milner's interest in reprogramming was initially philanthropic, but after meeting at his house, a non-profit organization called the Milky Way Research Foundation, sponsored by Milner, awarded three-year grants of $1 million a year to several longevity researchers. The proposals were considered by an advisory board that included Yamanaka and Jennifer Dudna, who won the breakthrough prize in 2015, and the Nobel Prize in 2020 for the joint discovery of CRISPR genome editing technology.

However, in 2021, a new plan appeared that was to further accelerate the course of research and turn the idea into a well-funded company, which is now Altos. These efforts were made under the leadership of the former head of the National Cancer Institute, and now entrepreneur Richard Klausner. Klausner, who previously helped create, companies such as Juno Therapeutics and Grail, a cancer testing company, is known for organizing large and profitable financial bets on new biotechnologies. According to the application for the registration of Altos Labs in the UK, Klausner is the CEO of the new company, like Milner, he also lives in Los Altos Hills.

Preventing death is something to work on... If living beings do not actively work to prevent it, they will eventually merge with the environment and cease to exist as autonomous beings. This is exactly what happens when they die, "said Jeff Bezos, an American entrepreneur, founder of Amazon Internet company.

Jeff Bezos meant that nations, companies, and individuals must fight to remain distinctive, original, and unique. One way to do this is to rewind the biological clock to earlier times.^[1]

Notes