 We've already covered how the reportedly Jeff Bezos-backed biotech company Altos Labs just exited Stealth Mode to announce $3 billion in funding and a team full of Nobel Prize winners and pioneers from academia and business. According to their website, they are focused on cellular rejuvenation programming to restore cell health and resilience with the goal of reversing disease. This caused a lot of excitement in the longevity community, which may have come as a surprise to the Altos Labs team since they insist that they are not an anti-aging or longevity company. In an article published by Endpoints News on January 19th, Altos Labs founder and chief scientist Rick Klossner is quoted as saying, We do not view this as either an aging company or a longevity company, and I feel really strongly about that. And I think the science that's going to emerge shows that yes, you can make cells that get dysfunctional over time healthier and more resilient, but it's independent of age. This is something we've heard directly from the company's representatives as well. The news team at Lifespan.io reached out to Altos Labs to find out more, and they received a response saying quote, Altos is not an anti-aging or longevity company. However, this messaging either didn't make it far or was largely ignored, because numerous media outlets and content creators referred to Altos as an anti-aging company or similar, and it's not something we've shied away from here at Lifespan News. And I think it's understandable why. Many of the notable leaders and scientists now affiliated with Altos Labs have been known for years for their work in aging research, and in many cases have been active participants in conferences and events within the longevity community. And the work that they are doing now at Altos appears to be very similar to their previous work, work that has been called aging research. So when Rick Clausner says that Altos is focused on reversing the dysfunction that occurs in cells over time and that they seek to rejuvenate cells to a healthier and more resilient state, but that that's independence of age and does not make them an anti-aging company, I think the real issue here is a semantic dispute. It comes down to what we mean by aging. Are we talking about chronological age, biological age, age-related diseases? To be fair, I can appreciate where Rick Clausner and the Altos team are coming from. There is no shortage of snake oil in pseudoscience and fringe quasi-religious beliefs when it comes to the quest to overcome aging. It's been in our stories for millennia, and in those tales, it typically doesn't go too well for the characters involved in that pursuit. A number of people still have an aversion to the idea of trying to extend healthy human lifespan, and even some of those who fully embrace the endeavor are not rooted in science and rationality, but in misplaced hopes and gollibility. There are a number of reasons for a for-profit company with a lot at stake to want to control their branding and messaging, making sure that the focus is on the science and medical breakthroughs and not on who their investors are or anyone's wild ideas about immortality. And the situation probably wasn't helped by the fact that the first public announcement of Altos Labs, which came in an MIT technology review article from Antonio Regolado, featured a headline about living forever and a poorly photoshopped image of Jeff Bezos as a knight playing a game of chess with death. This is probably not the visual that Altos Labs wanted people to think of when they hear the company's name. And that's just one article. Others talked about bionic billionaires and immortality and the fountain of youth. Media outlets want clicks, because that gives them attention and add dollars. And sensationalism and outrage can generate those clicks. And this can overshadow the branding and messaging that a company such as Altos and the scientists within it really feel should be highlighted. Ultimately, the technology that Altos Labs is working to develop may be able to reverse the damage and dysfunction that accumulate in cells as part of the biological aging process. This could, in theory, revert people to what we would call a younger biological age, even if their chronological age continues to increase. And this has the potential to increase their health span and their lifespan. So while Rick Klossner and others feel strongly that Altos Labs is not an anti-aging or longevity company, and while they understand why they would want to frame things in that way, I think there's more than enough justification for people to refer to Altos Labs as such. At a minimum, I think we can safely refer to them as a rejuvenation company, since that's a word that Altos Labs uses in their own messaging. And rejuvenation is a viable approach to tackling aging. A system that rejuvenates faster than the damage of aging accrues will never experience those problems. However, if Altos Labs doesn't want to be associated with longevity, that's a clear indication that there's a branding problem with it, and it's up to all of us to correct that. This will be a topic that we address in future videos, so please subscribe so you can be a part of that solution. I'm Ryan O'Shea, and we'll see you next time on Lifespan News.