OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doubling down on his San Francisco-based biotech startup Retro Biosciences, which aims to help people live 10 years longer than their healthy lifespan.
Altman led Retro Biosciences’ $180 million seed round. The startup is currently raising $1 billion in Series A funding, with Altman joining, the Financial Times reported.
Retro Biosciences, which plans to test drugs for diseases like Alzheimer’s, recently trained a model with OpenAI to turn normal cells into stem cells.
CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix told the FT it wants to move quickly with drug discovery and development “in the 2020s.”
The startup joins other major longevity efforts backed by billionaires, including Altos Labs, a $3 billion startup backed by Jeff Bezos set to launch in 2022, and Unity Biotechnology, backed by Bezos and Peter Thiel.
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