[imagesource: PA]

Jeff Bezos’ space venture might not be working out exactly as he planned, and so, he is apparently in the mix for another billionaires’ race.

The race against time, or more specifically, putting money into biological reprogramming technology to make people younger.

Bezos has invested in a new Silicon Valley company, Altos Labs, along with Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner.

Per Technology Review, scientists are being given big money to try to rejuvenate cells in the lab, which some scientists think could be extended to revitalise entire animal bodies, and ultimately make human life last longer, too.

The scientists involved have impressive resumes, per Futurism:

Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, a biologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, is amongst the many scientists coming aboard Altos. He made waves in 2017 when he began research into creating a human/pig chimera.

Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist and Nobel Prize winner for his research into aging reversal in cells, will also be joining as the chair on Altos scientific advisory board.

The company is still a bit of a mystery, with details still a touch murky, but there is no doubt that it is being incredibly well funded.

Bezos, at the age of 57 and having just retired from his role as CEO of Amazon, is obviously thinking about death and dying, which probably puts this next venture at the top of his to-do list.

Likewise, with 59-year-old Milner:

Image: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG

Seeing pictures of these two makes me think there’s a classic comic story about villains taking over the world in here somewhere.

Altos will also be working with a related technology for measuring the relative age of a cell, or a person. That biological-clock technique, pioneered by [UCLA professor Steve] Horvath, involves measuring the “epigenetic” marks on genes. These molecular features turn genes on and off, but their pattern becomes disorganized as people age.

Such a biomarker of aging would be an important way to measure the effect of any longevity or age-reversal drug that is developed. It’s difficult to run a medical study that demonstrates life extension, since it would take too long, but a biomarker could be employed instead.

Anyway, the thought of living longer than we currently do, with the world’s resources stretched so thin, terrifies me.

Then again, if you are one of the world’s richest people, Earth can look a lot like a playground, and why wouldn’t you want to play for as long as you possibly can?

[sources:technologyreview&futurism]