Coinbase, an American firm that trades in cryptocurrency, was founded and funded by billionaire Bill Gates.
Coinbase, a cryptocurrency startup based in America, was founded and funded by billionaire Mark Cuban.
Brian Armstrong announced recently his new company called NewLimit that specializes in ‘epigenetic programming’. This company aims at creating therapies to reverse the effects of aging.
NewLimit’s press release states that they will start by studying the epigenetic factors of aging in order to develop products to regenerate specific populations.
Armstrong will use machine learning to identify cell changes as we age to develop ‘therapies to slow down, stop, or reverse that process’.
NewLimit, however, is still in its concept phase. Armstrong said that NewLimit’s founders (including Stanford PhD Blake Byers) have contributed $105 million towards getting the business off the ground.
Armstrong and Byers stated in a press release that it was ambitious to attempt to “cure aging”. They also believe the mission will take many decades, if ever, and they feel an urgency to start today.
NewLimit’s core process is to uncover how epigenetic drives ageing. That refers, in simple terms to any changes to the DNA structure.
Armstrong intends to use machine learning in order to discover how cells change with age. This will allow Armstrong to design ‘therapies that can slow, halt or reverse this process.
Armstrong and Byers share their thoughts in the press release: “NewLimit intends to focus initially on this mechanism, epigenetic reprogramming.”
Epigenetic causes of aging refer to ‘age-related modifications in gene expression that affect the fundamental functions and increase risk for cancer’
NewLimit wants these drivers reprogrammed to do the reverse.
The press release states that “Put simple, we want a method to restore the regeneration potential we all had as children, but somehow lost.”
It also intends to ensure that its treatments are available to everyone, although it is possible for the company to take many decades before its products reach affordable prices.
Armstrong is not the only billionaire dipping their toes in the anti-aging market, as Jeff Bezos (left) and Russia-Israeli entrepreneur Yuri Milner (right) funded a startup biotechnology firm in September that aims to find a way that reverses aging.
Altos Labs will do this through biological programming, an approach discovered by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006. It reverses aging and is used in the creation of new products.
Armstrong isn’t the only billionaire to be interested in anti-aging. In September, Jeff Bezos funded a biotech startup company that aims at reversing aging.
Altos Labs has been established in the US as well as the UK in early this year. It raised approximately $270million for research into cell reprogramming technology. This could be used to reverse the biological clocks in both animals and people.
Altos Labs will do this using biological reprogramming. The technique was first discovered by Shinya Yamanaka (who is on the company board).
Yamanaka demonstrated that cells can become any type of cell by adding four proteins (now known as Yamanaka Factors).
And this was put to the test in 2016, when Spanish biochemist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, who is also joining Altos Labs, saw the technique reduce cellular and physiological signs of ageing in living mice and extend their lifespan by an average of six weeks.