American billionaire and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong along with Blake Byers has founded a new company named ‘NewLimit’ in a bid to extend the human ‘healthspan’. Meant to investigate the aging process, the company informed that it will start by treating new patients by developing a device that can regenerate tissues. Interestingly, NewLimit has even raised $150 million to kick start its journey of chasing a healthy and pain-free life.
Aims of NewLimit
Talking about its plans for the future, the company said that it is initially focused on a mechanism called ‘epigenetic reprogramming’. Under this mechanism, old cells will be scraped off from a person’s skin, which the scientists will then analyze in order to figure out how to restore the regenerative potential of those cells when they were young. In addition to this, the company also hinted that it will try to figure out why the elderly have a weaker immune system along with answering why they are more prone to infection why vaccines don’t work on them.
Among NewLimit’s list of ambitions, this stands out the most as it says that the ultimate aim is to offer people a life free from the ailments of old age rather than offering a prolonged life. Meaning, NewLimit wants people to maintain the same mobility and cognitive abilities which they had during their younger days irrespective of their life span. “Aging is one of the largest sources of pain and suffering hiding in plain sight all around us, and we believe there is a moral imperative to try and end this suffering that affects every one of us”, the company said in its release.
Detailing about the goals ahead, the company revealed that it will first start with primary human cells and reference species, which would be used to develop machine learning models. Ultimately, the scientists will use data from these models to develop therapies that could slow, halt, or reverse the changing process of features associated with ageing. “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”, NewLimit said. As for the affordability, the firm clarified that its products using the healthspan-enhancing technology will not be affordable to all eventually but it will try to drive down the costs soon.