In ten years we will be able prevent aging, restore health to diseased cells, reverse the course of diseases. Nobel Prize winners and top-level scientists who work for say it Altos Labs, one of the most funded startups on the planet. Born in 2021 in the Bay Area, thanks to 3 billion dollars (Jeff Bezos also seems to be among the investors), around a wonderful idea: improving what in English is called healthspan. Which is that period of life in which we live in good health.
Between them, at the head of a research group, there is an Italian. Simone Bianco45 years old, graduated in physics from the University of Pisa, with an incredible career, in which he took risks, combined different disciplines, achieved success and recognition.
“The challenge of Altos Labs is extremely fascinating. We work with enormous funds available and great freedom to do research. The goal is not to eliminate the inevitable, death or aging. As a species, we already live much longer than we should. In the 1930s he died at 30 from an abscess or from childbirth. Today, thanks to science and medicine, we live on average over 80 years of age (around 87 for women) but we spend the last twenty years of life with various types of ailments. From minor problems to bigger problems. Here you are we work to improve these yearsto combat diseases. And restore health.”
White in Altos has a double role. He is Principal Investigatori.e. head of a research group, e Director of Computational Biology. It combines biology with engineering, it combines physics with computer science, especially artificial intelligence. His is a computational approach to synthetic biology. He engineers cells, he searches for the perfect design for a cell to make it do what he wants, which is to make it more resistant to aging.
Simone Bianco with his research group at Altos Labs
The technique is that of partial cellular reprogramming.
“Let’s make a small historical digression. Cellular reprogramming is not a new technique, it has existed since the 1960s. But the turning point began around 2000. In those years, the Japanese doctor Shinya Yamanaka he discovered that activating 4 genes, which today are called Yamanaka Factors, it takes any cell in our body from the state it is in to a pluripotent state. They are called induced pluripotent stem cells. For this discovery, Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2012. But the problem with this discovery, which is fundamental for biology, is that when it is translated into vivo, that is, one tries to use it for therapeutic purposes, the consequences are a kind of multitissue tumors, teratomas.
In 2016, however, Juan Carlos Belmonte, a world-renowned researcher and now director of the San Diego division of the Altos Institutes of Science, has gone one step further. He discovered that whether this cellular reprogramming is partialthat is, if it is stopped before the cell becomes a stem cell, then all the effects of aging can be erased (the so-called aging hallmarks) and causes a rejuvenation of the organism, but without tumors. For now, let’s always talk about the effects on mice.
Altos Labs was born on this “partial reprogramming” and a new scientific movement that uses “Yamanaka factors” to stop aging.
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Where are we at, how long will it take? “I can’t say, the hope is that we will be able to have these therapies in a reasonably short time, within 10 years, but it’s impossible to say now.”
45 years old, from Taranto, Bianco graduated in physics in Pisa, then did a doctorate in Dallas, Texas. “I had a mathematician friend, I gave him my thesis to get his feedback. He forwarded it to Paolo Grigolini, a professor in Texas and director of the CNR in Pisa who wrote to me: “I have a position for a doctorate as a researcher, do you want to come?”. I said to myself: when will I get to go to the United States again? It was many years ago, I haven’t been back.”
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During his doctorate, he worked for three years on nanomateriali. From Texas he moved to Virginia, to the College of William and Mary, in collaboration with the research office of the US Navy (US Naval Research Lab), in Washington. Here He is passionate about biology and neuroscience He began to deal with infectious and rare diseases. “From that moment on, I never left biology.” Then he goes to the University of California Hospital, works on cancer and approaches cell biology. Who develops a new generation of polio vaccines. “This new generation of vaccines is based on five genetic modifications of the polio virus. I was responsible for two of these five modifications. The vaccine was taken from the Gates Foundation, entered into clinical trials and then used. The satisfaction I felt was It was immense. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a biologist, I’m a physicist, it’s difficult to describe what it feels like when you have such a strong impact on children’s health. Since then that has remained one of my reasons for living. .”
And again: in 2014 goes to IBM Search and becomes the head of the Ebola task force. He wins a large grant from the American government: 50 million from the National Science Foundation to do synthetic biology using artificial intelligence, mathematics and physics. “They were wonderful years. At IBM they treated me very well, I always felt at the center of a project. And when you feel at the center of a project at IBM, it’s like being at the center of the world. Yet when the call came of Altos Labs, I gave up everything: money, glory, career, team, field in which I was particularly recognized, to start from scratch and have an impact on people’s lives.”
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Will the way of doing medicine change? “We will move from the drug that perhaps saves lives to the drug that certainly slows down the onset of diseases. Medicine will no longer be reactive or preventive, but proactive. It is the reason why I get up every morning and go to work happy. I compare with hundreds of scientists and it’s something I wouldn’t change for the world.”
The soul of Altos Labs is Rick Klausner, founder and Chief Scientist. “He is a phenomenal person. For more than 30 years he was one of the National Institute of Health and for 6 years director of the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Then he created the Gates Foundation with Bill Gates, of which he was the first director He stayed there for 5 years, then he was Chief Medical Officer of the biotech company Illumina, which is the largest company in the world in this sector. He founded two others before Altos, which is his crowning achievementhis biggest bet.
“Among the official financiers, there is Robert Nelsen of Arch Venture Partners. In the building next to mine there is Peter Walter, who has won everything there is to win. People who have made the history of science. There are four Nobel Prize winners on our board.”
How does it feel when you reach such a high point in your career? “I don’t consider myself to have arrived. I have a very strong Impostor’s Syndrome (Impostor syndrome is that psychological condition that leads one to believe that one does not deserve the successes one has achieved ndr). I work so hard because I feel like I haven’t done anything. I think of the professor of my thesis, Roberto Renò, who gave me advice that I have never forgotten: “When you go to Texas, remember that you are not special. There are hundreds of people better than you. The difference between you and them is how much you work. You have to work, more than others…”.
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“Once here, I realized the immense effort that those who arrive at Altos Labs make. I’ll give you the example of Chinese researchers. To get to the top, they studied in the best universities: Peking University, the Normal University or the Tsinghua University. They worked three times as much as I had to work. They have an incredible work culture, a sense of deep competition. And when you deal with these realities, you understand that talent is only part of what you have. If you don’t work to exploit this talent, as much as they work, you won’t get there. Talent alone is not enough.”
Talent, a lot of work, many scientific articles, a TED seen by over a million people. And a lot of risks.
“If I look back, I see that I always risked a lot. I came to the United States to a small university in the province of Texas. I didn’t go to Harvard or Stanford. I left physics, for which I studied for many years, to move on to biology. I went from viruses to cells. From university to industry. Yet I have no regrets not even that of not having entered Harvard as a post-doc, where I had an interview company, where no one speaks my language. I had offers from prestigious universities: Duke University, the University of Michigan, but I preferred to change everything to do something that would have an impact on people’s lives.”
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What is science for you? “It’s understanding the mystery behind everything around us. And trying to use it to improve the human condition.”
Are we succeeding? “Yes, I think so. Artificial intelligence applied to biology is a huge opportunity. Science and technology in themselves are neither good nor bad, but they can also be applied for bad things. When I think about nuclear proliferation, nuclear weapons and war advancement I don’t sleep at night. But despite all this, I believe that science is still something extremely positive.”
Father of two 5-year-old twins, born in America, but Italian citizens, Bianco dreams of Italy for them. “I dream that, at a certain point in their lives, they want to come and study in Italy. To get to know our culture deeply. I have never worked in our country, but Italy has given me a lot.” To give back, Bianco has started a collaboration with the University of Bari, where Altos is funding a doctorate. “It’s my way of coming back. Which, sooner or later, I will do. Also to make my children understand the value of a hug. Do you know that in the United States in kindergarten they teach you to respect personal space?”.
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