Background on the Funding of Retro Biosciences, an Illustrative Slice of Life for the Longevity Industry and its Backers

Retro Biosciences is one of the better funded ventures focused on the treatment of aging to have emerged from the Bay Area centered science, advocacy, and venture communities. The story of how Retro Biosciences came to exist is illustrative of that community, and the way in which a strong interest in human longevity on the part of a few high net worth individuals has shifted in its focus over the past decade. Interested parties have expanded their activities from philanthropic funding of research, initially the only viable approach to make progress, to the addition of much larger investments in startup companies, growing as the biotechnology of treating aging advanced to the point at which it became possible to generate an industry around it. When a startup called Retro Biosciences led by Joe Betts-LaCroix eased out of stealth mode in mid-2022, it announced it had secured $180 million to bankroll an audacious mission: to add 10 years to the average human life span. It had set up its headquarters in a raw warehouse space near San Francisco just the year before, bolting shipping containers to the concrete floor to quickly make lab space for the scientists who had been enticed to join the company. The entire sum was put up by Sam Altman, the 37-year-old startup guru and investor who is CEO of OpenAI. He says he's emptied his bank account to fund two other very different but equally ambitious goals: limitless energy and extended life span. Altman's investment in R...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs