21st January 2022

Anti-aging startup launches with $3bn in funding

Altos Labs, a new biotech startup focused on deep biology of cellular rejuvenation programming, has been launched with $3bn in funding.

The company is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and includes leading scientists, clinicians, and leaders from both academia and industry working together towards this common mission.

Altos Labs will initially be based in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, USA, as well as in Cambridge, UK. The company will also have significant collaborations in Japan. Its activity will be organised across two groups: the Institute of Science and the Institute of Medicine. The former will pursue deep scientific questions and integrate their findings into one collaborative research effort. The latter will capture knowledge generated about cell health and programming to develop transformative medicines.

“I am deeply honoured to have been offered this once in a lifetime opportunity to lead such a unique company with a transformative mission to reverse disease,” said Hal Barron, who is currently President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at GSK and will join Altos as CEO. “It’s clear from work by Shinya Yamanaka, and many others since his initial discoveries, that cells have the ability to rejuvenate, resetting their epigenetic clocks and erasing damage from a myriad of stressors. These insights, combined with major advances in a number of transformative technologies, inspired Altos to reimagine medical treatments where reversing disease for patients of any age is possible.”

“Altos seeks to decipher the pathways of cellular rejuvenation programming to create a completely new approach to medicine, one based on the emerging concepts of cellular health,” said Rick Klausner, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder. “Remarkable work over the last few years beginning to quantify cellular health and the mechanisms behind that, coupled with the ability to effectively and safely reprogram cells and tissues via rejuvenation pathways, opens this new vista into the medicine of the future. Altos begins with many of the leading scientists who are creating this new science. Together, we are building a company where many of the world’s best scientists can collaborate and develop their research with the speed, mission, and focus of private enterprise. Our success will depend upon a culture of intense collaboration, enthusiasm, and openness.”

“I am honoured to serve as the lead independent Director of the newly formed Altos Labs,” said David Baltimore, Board member and Nobel laureate. “Altos will build on the remarkable developing understanding of cell alterations as they participate in the myriad processes of the human body over its lifespan. The goal of Altos will be to reverse the ravages of disease and aging that lead to disability and death, reinvigorating and extending the quality of life. Altos will provide an unparalleled environment for collaborative discovery and has already attracted a most impressive group of investigators to the daunting task of reversing ill health and taking medicine in a new direction.”

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The Altos Bay Area Institute will be led by Peter Walter, PhD, whose research has focused on developing a molecular understanding of how cells control the quality of their proteins and organelles during homeostasis and stress.

The Altos San Diego Institute will be led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, PhD, a pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine. He has developed numerous strategies to improve health, including tissue and organ regeneration and cellular and organismal rejuvenation. Also working at the San Diego Institute will be Steve Horvath, who led a team in 2020 that achieved a 54% reduction of aging in mice, one of the most promising breakthroughs ever seen in the field.

The Altos Cambridge (UK) Institute will be led by Wolf Reik, MD, a leader in epigenetic reprogramming of mammalian cells, Honorary Professor of Epigenetics at the University of Cambridge, and recipient of the Wellcome Prize in Physiology.

Altos Labs’ activities in Japan will be guided by Shinya Yamanaka, PhD, who will serve as Senior Scientific Advisor without remuneration. Dr. Yamanaka is among the world’s leading authorities on stem cell science and is a recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells.

Across all aspects of Altos will be a commitment to computational science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence with activities led by Thore Graepel, PhD. Graepel was most recently the research lead at Google DeepMind, and Chair of Machine Learning at University College London, and is one of the foremost minds on how to build more intelligent systems and agents that learn from experience.

This week’s launch of Altos Labs is just the latest in a series of anti-aging research institutes to emerge recently. In October 2021, we reported on a $70m effort called the Rejuvenome Project. That same month saw the establishment of the $1bn Longevity Science Foundation in Switzerland. With so much money being poured into the science of living longer, there is reason to be optimistic for those hoping to reach longevity escape velocity.

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