Bryan Johnson Shifts Immortals from Telemedicine Toward Cellular Models and Personalized Therapies
Bryan Johnson Shifts Immortals from Telemedicine Toward Cellular Models and Personalized Therapies
On July 24, Johnson said that he had changed the focus of his longevity company two weeks earlier. Immortals will retain its current medical services while adding work with cells from individual clients to identify potential therapies for them.
In a July 24 post, Johnson wrote that he had refocused Immortals on building infrastructure that would allow people to investigate and address their own health problems. He identified himself and Kate as the first clients, since both are working through recent diagnoses.
“Two weeks ago, I refocused my company Immortals on building infrastructure that will enable people to identify and address their own health problems. We are adding induced pluripotent stem cells, organoids, deep cellular characterization, and personalized therapy development.”
Immortals currently offers prescription treatments, biomarker testing, telemedicine, and physician support. In June, Immortals Medicine packaged these services into a platform that includes a questionnaire, a physician, a pharmacy, and delivery. Johnson now plans to supplement laboratory tests and wearable device data with cellular models derived from each client.
Induced pluripotent stem cells are produced by reprogramming adult cells into a state from which different tissue types can be grown. An organoid is a three-dimensional cell culture that reproduces some features of tissue structure. A review of brain organoids explains how these cultures retain the donor’s genetic background. Researchers can therefore use them to study how a disease manifests in human cells and to test potential drugs.
Immortals describes the process as follows: a person’s data and diagnosis define the question, cells from that person are used to construct a model, and the model is then used to search for a suitable therapy. Johnson is adding research based on each client’s biological material to the company’s consumer medical services.