A startup founded three years ago promises to rewrite the limits of biology and attack the oldest enemy of man – aging. His name: Altos Labs. Funded with $ 3 billion, with Jeff Bezos, the company gathered Nobel laureates and pioneers of regenerative medicine among investors. The goal? To play the cells of the human body “lost youth” and with it the resistance to diseases and trauma.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos/Photo: Archive
The first results do not only appear in spectacular communications, but in scientific magazines with an impact factor. In them, a future is outlined in which the body could be “rescheduled” at the cellular level, so that the DNA will remain young. Artificial intelligence complements the painting, offering, as the authors say, “an escape way in front of aging.”
“Yamanaka factors” – the key to the rejuvenation
The name of Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel laureate for medicine, is already related to this revolution. Two decades ago, he demonstrated that skin cells can be brought back into a state-like state, capable of turning into any tissue. The discovery bore the name of “Yamanaka factors”.
On this basis, the biologist Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, now at Altos, went on: he applied the technique on mice and obtained clear rejuvenation signs. A kind of “elixir of life”, but with huge risks – too much reprogramming led to the appearance of tumors.
Here comes the research led by Professor Wolf Reik in the UK. His team is trying to decipher the “transcript clock” of the cells – the mechanism that dictates what genes is activated and when. If this clock can be controlled, the therapy could rejuvenate the cells without the danger of cancer, writes The Times.
The battle with “mesodermal drift”
Aging does not mean only wrinkles. A major problem is “mesodermal drift”: the cells gradually lose their function and begin to behave like “universal reparators”. The result? Chronic inflammation, fibrosis, decreased organ efficiency.
Belmonte estimates that if these processes could be stopped, human life could be extended by decades. In a recent article in Cell magazine, his team shows that by deactivating precise genes, cells regain their discipline and “functional youth”.
The digital maps of youth
Attos also works at Tore Graepel, known for the contribution to the Alphago program. His role: to build computational models of aging.
Imagine your body cells like a landscape of hills and valleys. Youth means cells high, on the peaks, flexible and full of options. Over time, they slide into valleys, more stable, but less adaptable. Aging is, in fact, this slow process of “sliding in the valley”.
Graepel and his team want to find the maps that show how to remove the cells from these valleys and bring them back to the peaks. A kind of “cell recovery”, inspired by metallurgy. If he succeeds, the doctors could one day have the compass to tell them where each cell is and how to bring it back to you young.
