BANG Showbiz English
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly funding new ant-aging technology which could extend the human lifespan by up to 50 years.
Bezos – reputedly the world's richest individual – is believed to be one of several billionaire investors in Altos Labs, a Silicon Valley tech firm working on experimental new life extension technologies.
The company's “reprogramming technology” has the goal to return normal cells to a ‘primitive' stem cell state – which is how cells behave when someone is first born – in order to heal and regenerate.
Altos Labs has hired some of the world's top scientists in the field, including Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from Spain, who is known for his controversial work on mixing human and monkey embryos.
Belmonte has tested his cell work on live mice, with the rodents showing some signs of age reversal although some animals developed deadly tumours called teratomas.
Since leaving his position as Amazon CEO, Bezos achieved his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.
The 57-year-old businessman and his crew landed safely back on Earth following a successful launch by his private spaceflight company Blue Origin from West Texas
Bezos flew himself and his younger brother Mark, as well as 18-year-old Dutchman Oliver Daemen and 82-year-old aerospace pioneer Wally Funk – who became the youngest and oldest people to travel to space respectively – in the New Shepard rocket.
