With $180 Million Investment From the "Father of ChatGPT," Startup Launches Pill That Promises to Rejuvenate Cells and Extend Life

With $180 Million Investment From the “Father of ChatGPT,” Startup Launches Pill That Promises to Rejuvenate Cells and Extend Life

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 15/09/2025 at 22:40

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Retro Biosciences Announces Start of Clinical Trials in Australia With Innovative Pill RTR242, Promising to Revolutionize Alzheimer’s Treatments and Human Longevity

Retro Biosciences is preparing for a decisive step. By the end of 2025, the startup is expected to start its first human clinical trial with the experimental pill RTR242. The goal is to address the effects of Alzheimer’s in an unprecedented way.

The study will begin in Australia, where the first patient will receive the initial dosage. The announcement marks a new stage for the company founded in 2021, which received US$ 180 million in funding from Sam Altman, also known for leading ChatGPT.

How the Proposal Works

The focus of the medication is to restore autophagy, a cellular recycling mechanism that loses efficiency with aging.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Other Ongoing Research

Retro is not betting on just one front. Two other projects are in development. The first, called RTR890, aims to create new blood stem cells with the potential to treat leukemia.

The RTR888, on the other hand, is focused on central nervous system diseases and uses stem cell-derived therapy.

This diversified strategy positions the company in a highly competitive market.

Billion-Dollar Longevity Race

Investments in the longevity sector continue to grow because major names believe in the potential of this science.

Retro aims to raise US$ 1 billion in its Series A. Its main competitor, Altos Labs, backed by Jeff Bezos, has already accumulated over US$ 3 billion.

In parallel, OpenAI, also led by Altman, has partnered with Retro to create GPT-4b micro, an artificial intelligence developed for biotechnology.

The technology has increased the expression of cell reprogramming markers by 50 times, a step considered essential for reversing cell aging.

Betts-LaCroix summarizes the impact: extending healthy life by ten years would be a historic achievement. For him, overcoming heart diseases would guarantee four extra years, while cancer would add only three.

“Curing cancer would bring three extra years of life expectancy, and heart diseases, four. Ten years would be one of the greatest achievements in health“, he said.

Billionaires in Search of Youth

The interest of the ultra-wealthy shows the scale of the sector. Over the past two decades, more than R$ 27 billion has been invested in research to try to extend life to 150 years.

Figures like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Altman himself are among those who are betting the most on this future. Beyond financial returns, many act out of personal conviction.

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, has stated that his wish is to see 70-year-olds with the vitality of those in their 40s.

With information from Exame.

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With $180 Million Investment From the “Father of ChatGPT,” Startup Launches Pill That Promises to Rejuvenate Cells and Extend Life

Retro Biosciences Announces Start of Clinical Trials in Australia With Innovative Pill RTR242, Promising to Revolutionize Alzheimer’s Treatments and Human Longevity

How the Proposal Works

Other Ongoing Research

Billion-Dollar Longevity Race

Billionaires in Search of Youth

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With $180 Million Investment From the “Father of ChatGPT,” Startup Launches Pill That Promises to Rejuvenate Cells and Extend Life

Retro Biosciences Announces Start of Clinical Trials in Australia With Innovative Pill RTR242, Promising to Revolutionize Alzheimer’s Treatments and Human Longevity

How the Proposal Works

Other Ongoing Research

Billion-Dollar Longevity Race

Billionaires in Search of Youth

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Four times faster than the Concorde, capable of taking passengers from New York to London in less than an hour at Mach 5.5, and with an engine that switches from turbojet to ramjet mid-flight at Mach 3.5, the Hermeus Quarterhorse went from paper to its first flight in just 19 months.

SpaceX will dock a $843 million vehicle to the International Space Station to push a nearly 420-ton laboratory against the atmosphere and make the debris fall in a controlled manner into the ocean.

China opens the world’s first school where more than 100 humanoid robots from different brands will study together, each movement will be repeated up to 600 times a day and the data will feed a collective brain that will teach all the robots of the future.

Three teenagers surprise the world by creating a powder with tamarind seeds that removes microplastics from water, requires no electricity, and wins an international prize of $12,500 at The Earth Prize 2026.

China prepares a “panoramic Hubble” with 2.5 billion pixels and a field of view 300 times larger: Xuntian will have a 2-meter mirror, resolution close to that of the American telescope, can dock at the Tiangong space station for maintenance, and promises to map 40% of the sky in a decade.

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A giant golden ball in the middle of gardens in India was assembled with 1,415 discs, took decades to be completed, and transforms sunlight into controlled central lighting.

Three teenagers surprise the world by creating a powder with tamarind seeds that removes microplastics from water, requires no electricity, and wins an international prize of $12,500 at The Earth Prize 2026.

India completes tests of Project Kusha, its own long-range air defense shield to shoot down aircraft and missiles hundreds of kilometers away.

The largest neighborhoods in each state of Brazil are astonishing in size: Campo Grande leads with 352,000 inhabitants, Cidade Industrial exceeds 172,000, and Jorge Teixeira dominates the North.

China prepares a “panoramic Hubble” with 2.5 billion pixels and a field of view 300 times larger: Xuntian will have a 2-meter mirror, resolution close to that of the American telescope, can dock at the Tiangong space station for maintenance, and promises to map 40% of the sky in a decade.