Famous cryptocurrency trader embarked on a quest for immortality
Brian Armstrong, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, founded an “epigenetic reprogramming” company called NewLimit, which aims to extend human lifespan.
The billionaire entrepreneur collaborated with fellow entrepreneur Blake Byers, who holds a PhD in bioengineering from Stanford University.
“NewLimit will begin by questioning the epigenetic factors of aging in depth and developing products that can regenerate tissues to treat specific patient populations,” the firm’s press release states.
Epigenetics means the branch of science that studies changes in gene expression that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence, but are also hereditary.
Silicon Valley seeks “immortality”: Latest situation in billionaires’ investments that will “extend life”
NewLimit reports that it will also leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand how human cells change with age. According to the statement, the firm will “ultimately develop treatments that can slow, stop, or reverse this process.”
Company officials actually want to stop aging with a simple process. This process will take advantage of reprogramming technology, which means giving existing cells an entirely new task.
“Simply put, we all want to find a way to regain the regenerative potential we had when we were young but somehow lost it,” the statement reads:
15 years ago, an obvious fact was discovered: Our cells are much more plastic than we thought. For example, you can scrape a skin cell off your arm and reprogram it into a brain cell. (…) NewLimit plans to initially focus on this mechanism.
Although anti-aging technologies are considered to be in their infancy, billionaires are not failing to invest in startups like NewLimit.
The firm has already managed to raise over $100 million.
“We hope that capital will not be a limiting factor for the next few years,” said Armstrong and Byers’ joint statement.
Interest in the pursuit of immortality is growing in Silicon Valley. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also invested in Altos Labs, an anti-aging startup.
On the other hand, not all technology entrepreneurs welcome this effort. Among those who have been critical is Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla.
The entrepreneur with the title of the richest person in the world argues that people should die. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit recently, Musk said:
Dying is important to us because people often don’t change their minds, they just die. If you live forever, we can become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed.
