About five years ago, b_b and I had an idea. We have been working on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies of neurological disease for more than ten years, and one thing that we know is that the cells lose their therapeutic potential with age.
b_b and I wrote a grant that proposed to transplant MSCs from young mice to older genetically matched mice, and to test whether or not it improved the health of the older mice, and increased their lifespan. Unfortunately, we did not get funded for that project. However, in the years since, people have basically performed our proposed experiment, and have reported that such a transplantation could extend the life of mice between 6-25% depending on the dose and approach.
Over the same timespan, the number of clinical trials using MSCs for treatment of human diseases has exploded. There are now approaching 500 registered clinical trials using MSCs in one form or another.
Last spring, I was on a call with b_b, ecib, thenewgreen, and elfassy, and I was lamenting the fact that I wanted to store my own MSCs so I could use them in the future. To that, thenewgreen, replied: "We should be doing that. Let's do that."
Fast-forward 15 months later, and we are doing that: http://www.foreverlabs.co/
We bank your young stem cells so that you can treat your older self. Stem cell time travel.
Forever Labs is now operational in MI and NC. We will be opening in the Bay Area of CA next. We credential top orthopedic surgeons and plastic surgeons to perform the procedure, and we have partnered with an orthopedic device manufacturer to help us reach out to these surgeons. Conveniently, many orthopedic surgeons are already using bone marrow concentrate (platelet rich plasma) to promote healing and reduce inflammation in orthopedic procedures. We are able to isolate the stem cells from those same procedures, giving patients the option to bank them at the same time.
The procedure is simple and takes about 15 minutes from lying down to standing up. My wife said it was a 3.5 out of 10 on a discomfort scale, and I agree. There is almost no recovery to speak of. b_b played hockey that same night. I had it done in March. My cells are now almost 4 months younger than me.
Things are going well, we are growing, and we are excited for what the future will bring.
That's what we have been doing.
Bonus points if you can guess what our logo is.
Ooh bonus points! It's the "hacker symbol" from "The Hackers Manifesto" or more accurately it's the glider pattern in Conway's game of life (one which will continue moving forward forever). This is awesome, awesome news and congratulations to all involved, the fact you have already got an in with patients and it seems like a seamless service user experience is a real credit to you, I can't wait to see where this goes as I fully believe in this idea and had been hoping people would start to move down this route.
Well done on the glider! That was the intent. I do think that we are fortunate to have a route to patients through physicians. Admittedly, the concept is a bit provocative, and there is plenty of snake oil surrounding stem cell research and treatments. Of course, there are a number of people that are willing to be first adopters, but for most people, it is difficult to access the value proposition. There are some positive results coming to light, such as this MS trial using autologous hematopoetic stem cells (we store HSCs too). As these trials progress, I think the concept will be more generally understood.one which will continue moving forward forever
Thanks for posting mk. Hubskiers, this has consumed my life and has become my passion. I genuinely feel an obligation on many levels to make this succeed and available to as many people as possible. mk, b_b and I have all had the procedure. It's a pretty amazing thing to know that your younger stem cells are stored and are no longer biologically aging, even though you are. Sort of the ultimate, practical time-capsule. Ask questions. Please. Doesn't have to be about Forever Labs or stem cells. This is a business and I know many of you are keen on opening your own businesses etc. feel free to use this post as a place to ask any questions about the experience of building this company. Happy to provide feedback. Cheers!
What, if any, degradation do the stored cells undergo when frozen for 10, 20, 50, or 80 years? How cold is the temperature? Congratulations guys! What an effort. This seems to lay right at the intersection of human flourishing, cutting edge science, and great business. I wish the founders and participants the best of luck!
I'm actually shocked at how cheap that is. For some reason I thought it was much more expensive. EDIT: hell... this is actually ridiculously cheap. Last week it cost me MORE THAN THIS just to get my daughter into our family doctor's office, cultured for a UTI, and medicated. Get it down to $240 and that makes it $20/month. $20/month? That's doable on many, many budgets.
The cells are kept in liquid nitrogen, actually. The cost has a lot to do with back ups, insurance, FDA compliance, inventory management, shipping, etc. As with most things, we can achieve some savings with scale, and I do intend to bring the cost down for all as we can do so. It's our goal to make this available to as many people as possible, not just people with a lot of disposable income.Medical freezers chew through a lot of kwh, makes sense to me.
We outsource the storage to a clinical grade biorepository. Perhaps one day we will build our own facility for such a thing, but that's an entire new competency all together. We use a very large and reputable facility. We don't accept cells isolated by other facilities. Our credentialed doctors work out of their own clinics or surgery centers. We have a Forever Labs representative there on site to take the bone marrow, spin it down in the centrifuge and then they're placed in three aliquots. Then they're placed on dry ice and shipped to the biorepository. Below is a photo of me directly after having my own stem cells isolated. One of the proudest moments of my life. The birth of my children vs. this moment.... the kids win by a hair :)
You are correct on the legal front. Perhaps correct on the science front too, but the issue hasn't been studied enough. Doing research of this sort on humans is quite difficult for many reasons (some good, some less so), and doing it on under age humans is close to impossible.
It is my dream to ensure that the science that I've done for the last decade hasn't been done in vane. Most NIH sponsored research is completely divorced from health, and I would consider my life an abject failure if I killed countless rats and a not insignificant number if monkeys without improving the human condition. We will succeed, because the force of will of the people on the team will make sure of that.
Fucking rad. I'm currently at another age-pathology-related startup :) Lemme know when ya'll are in the bay and I can probably get the higher ups here to use your service, they would love it and maybe even hype it. Ya'll will definitely have a market here.
http://unitybiotechnology.com/ I'm working in Discovery
I imagine my generation is gonna be playing Pokemon GO for a loong time
Awesome! Thank you for the support. As mk mentioned, it has become quickly evident where the most enthusiasm is for what we are doing. We will be in your area soon. StJohn, now you know why I'll be in the bay area in 2016. We will have to have a Hubski meetup while out there.
Yes, they do. They decrease in both number and in function (as measured by their ability to divide, and form new tissue, such as bone). Here are some various references: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26088863 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24607555 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25634304 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25096220 So when you are most likely to suffer from diseases these cells might treat, your own cells have loss much of their therapeutic potential. One study that I found particularly interesting was that the number of circulating progenitor cells (cells expressing a stem cell marker) in octogenarians was predictive of longevity:
Why don't we have a best of 2016 list Make one flag
b_b thenewgreen mk -- congratulations, guys. Having an idea, making the idea happen, that's special and not too many people can handle it. Your procedure is moving rapidly up my priority list.
Great to hear more about this venture. I wish you the best of luck! The practice of preserving cord blood is similar; is that basically the same idea? Is younger blood always better?
Yes. The concept is very similar, and there is actually a bit of overlap in potential applications. Cord blood is typically used to treat blood diseases, as there are hematopoetic stem cells in cord blood. In addition to mesenchymal stem cells, there are hematopoetic stem cells in marrow, which we store as well.