Jeff Bezos has invested in an anti-aging biotech startup, a report says

• An anti-aging research company called Altos Labs was founded earlier this year.
• Sources told MIT Tech Review the company claims Jeff Bezos as one of its investors.
• Altos Labs hopes to develop technology to reprogram human cells, sources told MIT Tech Review.

A new company dedicated to finding out how to reverse the aging process has received funding from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, MIT Tech Review reported Saturday.

Altos Labs is a research-based company founded earlier this year which is hiring scientists with offers of $1 million annual salaries, per MIT Tech Review.

Citing people people "briefed by the company," MIT Tech Review reported Altos Labs said Bezos was among its investors.

Bezos' investment office Bezos Expeditions didn't reply to MIT Tech Review when contacted for comment. It also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in July. In a February letter to staff, he said he would spend his time on his philanthropic pursuits and passion projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin.

Bezos has funded anti-aging research before - in 2018 he invested in Unity Technologies, a biotech company whose goal is to make anti-aging therapies.

MIT Tech Review reported Altos Labs would primarily focus on a technology called reprogramming, which works by adding proteins to a cell which essentially instruct it to revert to a stem-cell-like state.

Read more: 9 top Bay Area biotechs that VCs say are poised to take off in the next year

Scientist Shinya Yamanaka won a joint Nobel Prize in 2012 for demonstrating the technique in mice. Yamanaka will be joining Alto Labs as chair of its scientific advisory board.

"Although there are many hurdles to overcome, there is huge potential," Yamanaka told MIT Tech Review in an email.

Delaware state records show the company was first incorporated in April, while UK Companies House records shows it was incorporated there in June.

MIT Tech Review reports Altos Labs plans to establish institutes in California, the UK, and Japan.

The company was formed following a two-day conference on anti-aging biotech at the Palo Alto mansion of Russian investor and tech mogul Yuri Milner, according to MIT Tech Review.