The idea of growing older gracefully is a noble, yet ambitious one.

But everyone knows that no matter how many anti-ageing serums you use, how often you hit the gym, time (and gravity) takes its toll on our skin. The process of ageing has always been considered one of the “natural enemies” of mankind. So it should come to no surprise to hear that hundreds of products exist, attempting to fight the ageing process.

From more typical ideas ideas like anti-ageing supplements to almost unbelievable procedures such as injecting an old person with a younger person’s blood, thousands of companies all over the world are in a race against time to fend off an enemy as old as life itself.

And now, it seems like one multimillionaire just joined the pool of players currently competing in the field of anti-ageing.

Will he finally succeed?

Jeff Bezos is assembling a team of top scientists to assist in his dream of developing anti-ageing technology. Credit: Getty Images.
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Jeff Bezos, the multibillionaire behind the international tech company Amazon, recently announced that he is on a mission to conquer ageing.

Last month, news outlets have reported that Mr Bezos has signed on one of the world’s top scientists to help him pursue his new anti-ageing technology.

The billionaire is said to have begun funding the startup Altos Labs – a new Silicon Valley company dedicated to anti-ageing research, or as what the folks at MIT Technology Review called: “Silicon Valley’s latest wild bet on living forever”.

Hal Barron, the former chief scientific officer at the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, was appointed as Altos Lab’s CEO.

“I am deeply honoured to have been offered this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead such a unique company with a transformative mission to reverse disease,” he said in a press conference.

Barron is joined by a team of recognised scientists in their field, including Dr Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel prize winner in medicine for his work in stem cell research, and Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel prize winner in chemistry for her role in developing the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

According to reports, Bezos had also invested funds in producing drugs to treat diseases linked to ageing, such as osteoarthritis.

Altos Labs is a new biotechnology company focused on cellular rejuvenation programming. Credit: Altos Labs.
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Jeff Bezos isn’t the only multi billionaire investor that is helping in funding Alto Labs either. Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner, who has been described as Russia's most influential information technology investor, is also reported to be part of the executives pitching in to fund Altos Labs’ research.

In recent times, it seems like more and more super-wealthy people all over the world have been funnelling their investments towards biological reprogramming to prevent ageing.

And even though Altos Labs is still a bit of a mystery, we can assume that right now, only time can tell if this billionaire-backed endeavour can actually help us stay young forever.

What we are sure of though is that by studying ageing, intriguing new discoveries are bound to emerge.

 

[Ricci]

This is what you spend your money on when you've bought everything else.

 

[Dodie Berry]

We have too many people now, why keep people living longer and exacerbate the problem.

 

[BobR]

We have too many people now, why keep people living longer and exacerbate the problem.

Who would you like to see who goes first - mother, father or siblings perhaps a spouse?

 

[Leila]

I've just listened to this audiobook on aging.