Coinbase Billionaire Starts $105 Million Antiaging Company NewLimit

$105 million is the initial investment for Antiaging company NewLimit and additional funding available upon reasonable progress. the Coinbase founder, Brian Armstrong, has a net worth of over $10 billion. They expect capital will not be the limiting factor for the next few years. They may raise external funding as well down the road.

What is different. Their goals is not to publish papers but to make products that lengthen peoples lives.

They are not trying to build an institute or academic minded organization where papers are more important than products. Our goal is to build an ambitious, well run, for-profit company that will deliver revenue generating products on the way toward accomplishing its much bigger objective.

Nextbigfuture notes that many people who have become wealthy via Cryptocurrency and blockchain and related businesses are heavy funders of aging reversal and aggressive antiaging companies. Vitalik Buterin created ethereum and has donated heavily to SENS. As cryptocurrency and blockchain create more billionaires and hectomillionaires (aka known with the incorrect metric prefix of centamillionaire) then there is and will be very solid funding for aging reversal. Billions and tens of billions per year going to solve antiaging will accelerate the science and medical progress and the implementation. Operation Warpspeed spent $12 billion of US government funding to develop COVID vaccines. Other governments spent billions to develop COVID vaccines and treatments. The biotech and pharma industries spent tens of billions to develop and launch the COVID vaccines and treatments.

NewLimit, a company co-founded by Brian Armstrong and Blake Byers with the mission of extending human healthspan.

NewLimit will start by deeply interrogating epigenetic drivers of aging and developing products that can regenerate tissues to treat specific patient populations. We will start by using primary human cells and reference species to develop machine learning models on what chromatin features change with age, which of these changes may be causal to the aging process, and finally develop therapies that could slow, halt, or reverse this process.

The last decade has seen a cambrian explosion in the tools we have to probe and better understand biology. Forget just sequencing DNA. We can now sequence the DNA, RNA, and epigenetics of single cells, in an entire tissue, and retain the spatial representation of where the cells were. We can now track single proteins in real time as they shuttle around a cell and perform their tasks. These toolkits enable a four magnitude increase in feature space that we can leverage to better understand biological systems.

Why epigenetics?

Fifteen years ago, a retrospectively obvious phenomenon was discovered: your cells are far more plastic than we had assumed. You can scrape a skin cell off your arm and reprogram it into a brain cell1. In fact, you can take a skin cell from an old mouse and clonally turn it into a newborn mouse with an entire life ahead of it2. Remarkably, to accomplish this magic, you only treat the cells with four types of proteins3. In a system as complex as mammalian biology, with billions of DNA base pairs and tens of thousands of proteins, all it takes is dosing four proteins for a couple weeks to completely change what the cell “is”. NewLimit plans to initially focus on this mechanism: epigenetic reprogramming. Put simply, we want to figure out a way to restore the regenerative potential we all had when we were younger, but somehow lost. The last year has emphasized this point on a global scale. We still do not know why the elderly have a weaker immune system and are more susceptible to infection and receive less protection from vaccines. You can go read all the textbooks and you won’t find any satisfying answers.

Will this technology be accessible to all?

Yes. Every breakthrough product, from cell phones to electric cars, started out with breakthroughs in basic science, which led to expensive early prototypes. But the cost of these products were driven down over time, to the point where they are becoming accessible to everyone. Some of these products take decades to get to lower costs, but we hope to move much faster than that. An example of potential with the right scale: Two years ago, mRNA therapeutics package in lipid nano particles (LNPs) were a product only reserved for expensive gene therapies, but in 2021 over a billion people received an mRNA LNP to immunize them against COVID for less than $20 a dose.

35 thoughts on “Coinbase Billionaire Starts $105 Million Antiaging Company NewLimit”

  1. Are there organs or areas of tissues that are simply inaccessible for CRISPR , limiting it to 5% to 15% of cells?

    Basically, is there something preventing applying CRISPR multiple times, targeting a segment of DNA that exists (once only) in all cells, but which – once modified – wouldn't exist to be targeted in the edited cells?

  2. That is not the "single cell level" I am talking about, unless you are cloning.
    We can only clear a fraction of senescent cells unless all the cells were programmed (which can only happen at the very beginning or theoretically with nanites), something like a virally inserted CRISPR would only do 5 to 15% of cells max. And even that could be quite dangerous if the person were not in very good health.
    Senescent cells are just one form of accumulation. We accumulate AGEs (mostly glucosepane), crosslinked collagen, amaloids (misfolded proteins), toxins, genetic damage during cellular division, scar damage (which can be in any tissue) and pathogens. After replacing cells, you would still have all the distortions in structure, and accumulations.
    There are ways to clear some accumulations like lipofuscin, crosslinked collagen, damaged mitochondria, and AGEs other than Glucosepane if cells and tissues behaved more like they did when they were young.
    Organ replacement is possible. But things like toxins and pathogens can't be removed that way. It would take blood cleaning, and drugs that eliminate all these infections, latent or not.
    The brain can't be replaced, and you still be you, and it accumulates viruses in the herpes family like Cytomegalovirus. If you have ever had Mono, you still have Cytomegalovirus in your brain. We don't know of anything that can eliminate it. https://medlineplus.gov/cytomegalovirusinfections.html
    The longer you live, the more likely you will get it.

  3. Could we not then re-engineer stem cells at the single cell level, grow large numbers and introduce them in parallel with clearing senescent cells? Some organs (e.g. parts of the brain?) might not be much affected?

  4. I'll state it in terms the peanut gallery may be able to begin to grasp: ageing is a process, not a thing. You see it in every complex system. An example is bitrot in computer systems – however much maintenance you do eventually you have to tear it down root and branch and start anew. You can pretend all you like that a person is a machine and you can simply renew and replace parts but that isn't it: ponder on the Ship of Theseus – we are all thus yet still we age.

  5. If we were starting at the single cell level, we could do a ton to lengthen life, with some re-engineering. But most people are just concerned with their own lives rather than the next generation.
    And there are a lot of people terrified irrationally about genetic modification.

  6. The 9 commonly given (which in some cases are classes): Telomere shortening, Epigenetic changes, Nuclear DNA damage, Stem Cell Exhaustion, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Loss of Proteostasis, Deregulated Nutrient Sensing, Altered Intercellular Communication, and Senescent Cell Accumulation (could not find the SENS list. They made their site all wonky for phones, I presume).

    But there are others. Other organelles in cells get damaged over time, like lissomes, and poorly functioning lissomes allow accumulations within the cells or incomplete removal of poorly functioning mitochondria. There is all kinds of stuff in cells, and most of this can deteriorate.

    And there are accumulations of proteins and crosslinks.

    And when mitochondria are mentioned, it is usually in the context of them not being recycled rapidly enough, but there are other problems like the damaged mitochondria making lipofuscin which accumulates. The waxy substance is the equivalent of exhaust from poor combustion. This stuff is what age spots are made of, and this stuff is not just on the skin but in the muscles, heart, liver, kidneys, brain, nerves, and more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipofuscin

    And there are 25? or so proteins that can misfold. And when they do it can catalyze other healthy proteins to also misfold.

    Other crap accumulates that are chemicals in the environment, rather than anything our bodies made.

    We also accumulate infections: bacteria, viruses, protists, fungus.

    And scar tissue

  7. " In a system as complex as mammalian biology, with billions of DNA base pairs and tens of thousands of proteins, all it takes is dosing four proteins for a couple weeks to completely change what the cell “is”. "

    The reset button is simple. The "become a particular sort of kidney cell" button is a bit more complicated.

  8. SENS categorizes the forms of aging. That is not the same as fully identifying, listing, and coming up with a strategy of addressing each.
    Some can be skirted probably. We don't have to fix everything that goes bad with cells, if those damaged cells can be removed and replaced. But, also every time a cell divides there is DNA damage, as well as simply the shortening of telomeres. So, we don't want to just lengthen telomeres and not be concerned about the lifespan of individual cells. We need the cells to stay healthy as long as possible, even if we will not run short of replacements. Or you need nanites or absurdly large CRISPR substitutions to correct DNA damage. Not all of it really needs fixed each cell only uses a subset of the DNA to function. That said, DNA damage during cellular division is far from the things that will kill you first.
    And truth is we still are somewhat limited in our understanding of the body, especially interactions, and signaling. They, in fact, just discovered that there is another hormone involved in glucose regulation. And it is not like no one has been looking at glucose regulation. https://scitechdaily.com/new-route-discovered-for-regulating-blood-sugar-levels-independent-of-insulin/
    9 forms of aging are often given (below):

  9. There is probably more than one singular cause to aging, but there are also probably a finite number of causes. I believe the SENS project identifies six, with protein accumulation being one of those.

  10. He was probably referring to mandates that such therapies pass the gov test before you are allowed to try them. This is very common, always has been since AMA monopoly started, at least in US.

  11. He seems to have a "nature" focus, the chemicals are in control. This is clearly true, *mostly*, but the "nurture" claim is that important epigenetic changes can be caused by experience, broadly defined. There are many studies of neglected children along these lines. Mice experiential epigenetic changes have been shown to carry thru reproduction, the utter destruction of all "nature" theories. Does Sinclair ever go along that nurture path at all? He sounds like he *should* be very interested in the demonstrated and proven epigenetic changes that happen frequently and regularly in Primal Therapy. "Cancer and heart disease" (I would add suicide) "are not the major killers they are thought to be. Repression is." -Janov

  12. Besides having a "live and live attitude", people who succeed in doing Primal Therapy are also competent to meet their own needs. This is mostly because they know what those needs are. The Neurosis of the larger System is harder to escape. "Once understood, the System must be destroyed" -Janov

  13. Yes Dan, we lost self sufficiency and we are getting lost entirely with our dependency on both self serving "companies" and institutions.

  14. The idea of approaching afing as a problem to be solved ha always interested me. At least we can now understand it to be multiple heads of a hydra (sorry, nature, no offense meant). I think understanding epigenetics is the key. On that note, I've been listening to lots of interviews with David Sinclair this month.

  15. I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention this, but they figured out that just one conformation of Tau is behind Alzheimer's. That means they have a target. It also means that they may not have to clear tau protein, they may only have to convert it to a miror image: https://www.biospace.com/article/research-roundup-a-potential-cause-of-alzheimer-s-disease-and-more/

    I still think there is something provoking the creation of Tau protein, and I suspect infections are the reason. They too may not be what set things in motion. Leaky gut may have allowed some bactera into the bloodstream that make it to the brain. Though, even if true, that may be just one of several avenues. Latent viral infections may be the more common cause.

    https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/oral-bacteria-may-responsible-alzheimers-disease/

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34569963/

    https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/06/researchers-show-herpes-link-to-alzheimers/

    There have been a lot of dead ends with Alzheimer's. There are conceivable ways associations can exist where no cause is involved. It is likely, Alzheimer's patients are not cleaned or fed as well as healthy people clean themselves and feed themselves. That could lead to more infections. And I am not trying to put down the care they receive. It is just physically difficult to make good meals, and provide all the care. Also, the patients themselves may do unsanitary things similar to young children.

  16. Go ahead and decline them. Me – if/when rejuvenation therapies are shown to work but remain very expensive – I'd give up my social security to be young again. That is a government program I would support in an instant!

  17. "You were made as well as we could make you." (Tyrell). Although evolution doesn't have the advantage of external medical intervention, if this were possible it would already be a thing.

  18. Anyone who has a true sense of what health and aging is about smiles at the idea that we need more companies to get our body to do its work after we have created companies to make it stop working by loading it with heavy metals, plastics, chemicals and other toxins and creating more conditions for viruses in our body to evolve by creating companies that feed us with a diet that feeds viruses and destroys our defenses against them and ultimately creating companies and other interests creating these variants in labs and spreading them for profit and gain.

  19. There are a lot of accumulations killing the very old. These accumulations are mostly misfolded proteins and glucosepane. Reversing the age of your cells does nothing for these things, because the body has no mechanisms to remove these things. That is how they accumulated in the first place. Alzheimer's is just the tip of the iceberg, there are lots of amyloids accumulating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyloidosis
    Without addressing this, I suspect people can't live beyond around 150.
    It takes time for things to accumulate unless you have an accelerated case due to genetics or unusual exposure. You are not going to see this in mouse aging, unless you program them to have an accelerated case. So, sure, you can make a mouse look and act young using senescent cell clearance or methylation reversal, but that is not the whole picture of aging. Transthyretin amyloid is one of the first that is likely to get you. It stiffens the heart:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild-type_transthyretin_amyloid

  20. They could invest in Helion or Space Solar or Earth to Earth power beaming. Leaving the planet solves far more than climate, as O'Neill sez.

  21. Perhaps they could put a little more money into offsetting the effects of climate change, considering the massive amounts of CO2 being created by the coin mining operations that are providing their wealth.

    There's not much point to a long life if you're living in a blasted wasteland.

  22. "Why epigenetics?

    Fifteen years ago, a retrospectively obvious phenomenon was discovered: your cells are far more plastic than we had assumed."

    In 1970 and continuously thereafter, Arthur Janov began publishing documented observations of dramatic physiological changes, including actual regeneration (I was there for such a report by a patient), better health and thus presumably longer life (he sez 120 should be common), during Primal Therapy. He therefore must have been a quack, if you listen to others. primaltherapy dot com Now, we know that these are and continue to be beneficial epigenetic changes. They are solid proof that Primals exist, and are important. Primal Therapy is and has been continuously avail all that time.

  23. The pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money on chronic conditions. They don't want to see any of these cured. And the larger the company, the more true, because each of the companies wants/has a drug or treatment for each of the chronic conditions.
    There is a cure for Toxoplasma gondii, but almost no one can get it, even though many millions are infected. They only let patients with advanced HIV have the cure in the US, and sometimes pregnant women. You know all that business with Martin Shkreli, a few years ago? Yep. That is the drug. The cure for Toxoplasmoses.

    There are lots of parasites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parasites_of_humans

    Lots of bacteria labeled as "benign" but may not be. And there are maybe 50 viruses that are never cleared from our systems, some may act like HIV, just a lot slower.
    They have been slow to develop antivirals, and the ones they have developed mostly are just to hold viruses at bay rather than curing the patents. I am hoping all the funding and intrest in Covid-19 treatments will result in some very good antivirals that are more general rather than specific. These are the ones that may "accidentally" cure some common chronic conditions blamed, of course, on the patent, like stomach ulsers were. Adeoviruses 5, 36, & 37 cause obesity in animals, and I think it is very likely they do in humans as well. And my money is on viruses or other pathogens causing a variety of mental illnesses as well.

  24. The only hope for treatments being affordable is competition. By keeping everything secret, they can patent but hide the methods to actually make the molecules, cells and such under trade secret.
    No papers is not a positive development.
    Hopefully, it will be others who do publish, that succeed.

    Also, methylation is just one form of aging.

    I suspect the grinding down of the immune system is related to the body fighting "harmless" viruses, and other pathogens, that it never wins against. Something like 50% of people have literal creatures running around in their brains called Toxoplasma gondii. And there are viruses the body can't eliminate. Bacteria can have a protective shell that insures that the immune system cannot prevail fully. And these things have been implicated in several diseases. There is a lot of effort to suppress this. The Wikipedia page was deleted: https://web.archive.org/web/20141124121540/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_diseases_associated_with_infectious_pathogens
    Powerful intrests have made it difficult to get antibiotics because some dieases they were making fortunes on treating symptoms were cured like stomach ulcers. People would get these stomach ulcers, and then be blamed for it. They told them, "You are type A", "You bottle up stress", "You work too hard". There was decades of evidence that a "harmless" bacteria was involved, but it was near impossible to get any funding to prove it or treat it. But eventually…

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