Peter Thiel definitely has some personal issues to deal with.

Not only did he go full on, taking revenge against Gawker for publicising the fact that he is gay by funding others’ court cases against the publication until it was bankrupt, but is also obsessed with anti-aging technologies.

Apparently Thiel has funded a startup dedicated to extending the human lifespan, as he believes that people have been honed in by “the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual.”

According to Inc. Magazine’s Jeff Bercovici, Thiel is so afraid of dying that he has begun to explore the idea of harvesting, and injecting himself, with the blood of younger people.

Eww.

This came out in an unpublished interview with Bercovici last year:

After briefly discussing the pros and cons of caloric restriction, human growth hormone and the diabetes drug metformin, Thiel said this:

I’m looking into parabiosis stuff … where they [injected] the young blood into older mice and they found that had a massive rejuvenating effect. … I think there are a lot of these things that have been strangely underexplored.

I followed up to ask if he meant parabiosis was “really interesting” as a business opportunity or a personal-health treatment. He made it clear he was talking about the latter. “That would be one where it’s more just, do we think the science works? Some of these it’s not clear there’s actually a great company to start around it. …”

But weirdly, or maybe not, Thiel’s startup isn’t the only one heading into this realm of anti-aging.

Ambrosia LLC is a company in Cali, U.S., that recently began recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial in which people older than 35 would be injected with blood from people younger than 25. Sounds like the future.

Headed by Jesse Karmazin, he reported that one of Thiel’s employees contacted him after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval:

While Ambrosia advertised the study to attract participants, it didn’t seek broader coverage. So Karmazin was somewhat surprised to get a message from Jason Camm, chief medical officer at Thiel Capital, who expressed interest in what the company was doing. … An osteopath with a background in treating elite athletes, Camm is “Personal Health Director to Peter Thiel…and a number of other prominent Silicon Valley business leaders and investors,” according to his professional profile.

Although when asked, Thiel denied injecting himself with blood – but the rumours of Silicon Valley suggest otherwise and Gawker is on a mission to prove them true.

One tip the online publication received was that Thiel “spends $40,000 per quarter to get an infusion of blood from an 18-year-old based on research conducted at Stanford on extending the lives of mice.”

That’s R580 000 every three months just to live longer.

He should probably do some research into the existence of vampires. Or head over to Skin Renewal. There are easier ways, son.

[source:gawker]