Joe Betts-LaCroix

Last updated
Joe Betts-LaCroix
JoeTED 2.png
Joe Betts-LaCroix in 2011
Born (1962-02-26) February 26, 1962 (age 62)
Alma mater Harvard College
OccupationCEO of Retro Biosciences
Website evocator.org

Jonathan "Joe" Betts-LaCroix (born Jonathan Betts February 26, 1962) is an American scientist and entrepreneur known for his discoveries in biophysics and for creating the world's smallest personal computer. He is working to optimize medical research priorities in the U.S.

Contents

Early life and education

Joe Betts-LaCroix was born and raised in Oregon. He graduated from the school with "D average", and "spent the next six years living in a shared house with 'musicians, artists and weirdos'". He did some "electronics, hardware and software work for local businesses" at this time. When his girlfriend went to Harvard, he decided to follow, and after getting "straight A's" at a local college, he then transferred to Harvard, where he studied environmental geoscience. [1]

Academics

Beginning in earth sciences at Harvard, Betts-LaCroix contributed to the field of long-term regulation of oxygen on Earth over multi-100 Million-year timespans, quantifying the effect of the burial efficiency of organic carbon as a feedback mechanism. [2]

At MIT, he designed and built an autonomous, robotic system that enables research into ocean circulation patterns and climate change, by operating untended for up to one year at sea on battery power and collecting hyper-pure water samples at predetermined intervals. [3]

In work at Caltech, Betts-LaCroix moved into biophysics, publishing a paper in Science that has been cited by more than 700 subsequent scientific works. [4] In this work, he, along with David Beratan and José Onuchic,proved for the first time that electron-transfer rates in proteins are determined by the electron orbital interactions in the protein structure. [5]

Hardware

In 2000, Betts-LaCroix cofounded OQO, a computer hardware and software OEM credited by the Guinness World Records as having created the world's smallest Windows PC. [6] This created a new category of mobile computing devices between PDAs and laptops, which were initially dubbed the "Ultra Personal Computer", and which subsequently became known as the "Netbook". The device won many awards for its innovation, aesthetics and functionality. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

After OQO, Betts-Lacroix was active in Silicon Valley as a lecturer and mentor for CEOs of start up companies. [12]

Biotechnology & biomedicine

Betts-LaCroix has participated in the Quantified Self movement since the beginning, [13] and has given numerous presentations on aspects of self experimentation and tracking, including experiments in the 28-Hour day. [14]

In 2010, he joined startup Halcyon Molecular to lead its automation efforts. [15] Halcyon, funded by, among others, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, attempted to sequence human DNA using electron microscopes. The underlying goal of Halcyon's work was to make meaningful progress in understanding human biology in order to improve medicine. [15]

Following the theme of improving medicine, Betts-LaCroix founded the Health Extension Foundation in 2012. [16] The efforts of the people working in Health Extension are motivated by recognizing that

  1. Most healthcare money treats age-related diseases;
  2. Aging is the single biggest risk factor for these diseases;
  3. But funding to address the biochemical processes of aging is less than 0.01% of healthcare spending—and correcting this missed opportunity to optimally assign medical research and translation priorities. [17]

In 2013, Betts-LaCroix cofounded Vium, which has raised $33M to accelerate the development of new medical therapies by automating in-vivo research. [18] [19] Vium launched publicly in 2016, [20] and was later acquired by Recursion in 2020. [21]

Betts-LaCroix is also a biotech angel investor in such companies as StemCentrx, Recursion Pharma [22] and Spring Discovery, [23] as well as a part-time contributor at Y Combinator. [24]

In 2020, Betts-LaCroix cofounded Retro Biosciences, which emerged out of stealth with $180 million in funding from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman [25] to focus on extending healthy human lifespans. [26] Retro works on autophagy, the rejuvenation of blood plasma and on partial cell reprogramming. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cytochrome c oxidase</span> Complex enzyme found in bacteria, archaea, and mitochondria of eukaryotes

The enzyme cytochrome c oxidase or Complex IV, is a large transmembrane protein complex found in bacteria, archaea, and the mitochondria of eukaryotes.

Combinatory logic is a notation to eliminate the need for quantified variables in mathematical logic. It was introduced by Moses Schönfinkel and Haskell Curry, and has more recently been used in computer science as a theoretical model of computation and also as a basis for the design of functional programming languages. It is based on combinators, which were introduced by Schönfinkel in 1920 with the idea of providing an analogous way to build up functions—and to remove any mention of variables—particularly in predicate logic. A combinator is a higher-order function that uses only function application and earlier defined combinators to define a result from its arguments.

In combinatory logic for computer science, a fixed-point combinator, is a higher-order function that returns some fixed point of its argument function, if one exists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Graham (programmer)</span> English programmer, venture capitalist, and essayist

Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, writer, entrepreneur and investor. His work has included the programming language Lisp, the startup Viaweb, co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his essays, and Hacker News.

Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled biological limit of around 125 years. Several researchers in the area, along with "life extensionists", "immortalists", or "longevists", postulate that future breakthroughs in tissue rejuvenation, stem cells, regenerative medicine, molecular repair, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, and organ replacement will eventually enable humans to have indefinite lifespans through complete rejuvenation to a healthy youthful condition (agerasia). The ethical ramifications, if life extension becomes a possibility, are debated by bioethicists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metalloprotein</span> Protein that contains a metal ion cofactor

Metalloprotein is a generic term for a protein that contains a metal ion cofactor. A large proportion of all proteins are part of this category. For instance, at least 1000 human proteins contain zinc-binding protein domains although there may be up to 3000 human zinc metalloproteins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air ioniser</span> ION is mostly used on air conditioning products. Ioniser is another word for air purifier

An air ioniser is a device that uses high voltage to ionise air molecules. Negative ions, or anions, are particles with one or more extra electrons, conferring a net negative charge to the particle. Cations are positive ions missing one or more electrons, resulting in a net positive charge. Some commercial air purifiers are designed to generate negative ions. Another type of air ioniser is the electrostatic discharge (ESD) ioniser used to neutralise static charge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Agre</span> American physician (born 1949)

Peter Agre is an American physician, Nobel Laureate, and molecular biologist, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. In 2003, Agre and Roderick MacKinnon shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes." Agre was recognized for his discovery of aquaporin water channels. Aquaporins are water-channel proteins that move water molecules through the cell membrane. In 2009, Agre was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and became active in science diplomacy.

In chemistry, a non-covalent interaction differs from a covalent bond in that it does not involve the sharing of electrons, but rather involves more dispersed variations of electromagnetic interactions between molecules or within a molecule. The chemical energy released in the formation of non-covalent interactions is typically on the order of 1–5 kcal/mol. Non-covalent interactions can be classified into different categories, such as electrostatic, π-effects, van der Waals forces, and hydrophobic effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photosynthetic reaction centre</span> Molecular unit responsible for absorbing light in photosynthesis

A photosynthetic reaction center is a complex of several proteins, pigments, and other co-factors that together execute the primary energy conversion reactions of photosynthesis. Molecular excitations, either originating directly from sunlight or transferred as excitation energy via light-harvesting antenna systems, give rise to electron transfer reactions along the path of a series of protein-bound co-factors. These co-factors are light-absorbing molecules (also named chromophores or pigments) such as chlorophyll and pheophytin, as well as quinones. The energy of the photon is used to excite an electron of a pigment. The free energy created is then used, via a chain of nearby electron acceptors, for a transfer of hydrogen atoms (as protons and electrons) from H2O or hydrogen sulfide towards carbon dioxide, eventually producing glucose. These electron transfer steps ultimately result in the conversion of the energy of photons to chemical energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry B. Gray</span> American inorganic chemist

Harry Barkus Gray is the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Y. Tsien</span> American biochemist and Nobel laureate (1952–2016)

Roger Yonchien Tsien was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008 for his discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, in collaboration with organic chemist Osamu Shimomura and neurobiologist Martin Chalfie. Tsien was also a pioneer of calcium imaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Altman</span> American entrepreneur and investor (born 1985)

Samuel Harris Altman is an American entrepreneur and investor best known as the CEO of OpenAI since 2019. He is also the chairman of clean energy companies Oklo Inc. and Helion Energy. Altman is considered to be one of the leading figures of the AI boom. He dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30 million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bacterial nanowires</span> Electrically conductive appendages produced by a number of bacteria

Bacterial nanowires are electrically conductive appendages produced by a number of bacteria most notably from the Geobacter and Shewanella genera. Conductive nanowires have also been confirmed in the oxygenic cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC6803 and a thermophilic, methanogenic coculture consisting of Pelotomaculum thermopropionicum and Methanothermobacter thermoautotrophicus. From physiological and functional perspectives, bacterial nanowires are diverse. The precise role microbial nanowires play in their biological systems has not been fully realized, but several proposed functions exist. Outside of a naturally occurring environment, bacterial nanowires have shown potential to be useful in several fields, notably the bioenergy and bioremediation industries.

Dilan Jayawardane is a Sri Lankan engineer who co-founded Scoopler based in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantified self</span> Movement of people who track themselves with body-related data

Quantified self refers both to the cultural phenomenon of self-tracking with technology and to a community of users and makers of self-tracking tools who share an interest in "self-knowledge through numbers". Quantified self practices overlap with the practice of lifelogging and other trends that incorporate technology and data acquisition into daily life, often with the goal of improving physical, mental, and emotional performance. The widespread adoption in recent years of wearable fitness and sleep trackers such as the Fitbit or the Apple Watch, combined with the increased presence of Internet of things in healthcare and in exercise equipment, have made self-tracking accessible to a large segment of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey von Maltzahn</span> American inventor

Geoffrey von Maltzahn is an American biological engineer and businessman in the biotechnology and life sciences industry who has founded a number of companies including Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology, Kaleido Biosciences, Seres Therapeutics, Axcella Health, Generate Biomedicines and Tessera Therapeutics. He has over 200 bioengineering and biotechnology patents and applications.

Calico Life Sciences LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. with a focus on biotechnology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Kaelin Jr.</span> American Nobel Laureate, Professor of Medicine at Harvard University

William G. Kaelin Jr. is an American Nobel laureate physician-scientist. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. His laboratory studies tumor suppressor proteins. In 2016, Kaelin received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the AACR Princess Takamatsu Award. He also won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019 along with Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza.

David N. Beratan is an American chemist and physicist, the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry at Duke University. He has secondary appointments in the departments of Physics and Biochemistry. He is the director of the Center for Synthesizing Quantum Coherence, a NSF Phase I Center for Chemical Innovation.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Most Secretive Longevity Lab Finally Opens Its Doors". Bloomberg.com. 19 December 2023. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  2. Betts, Jonathan (1991). "The oxygen content of ocean bottom waters, the burial efficiency of organic carbon, and the regulation of atmospheric oxygen". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 97 (1–2): 5–18. Bibcode:1991PPP....97....5B. doi:10.1016/0031-0182(91)90178-T. PMID   11538093.
  3. Bell, Jory (2002). "MITESS: a moored in situ trace element serial sampler for deep-sea moorings". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 49 (11): 2103–2118. Bibcode:2002DSRI...49.2103B. doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(02)00126-7.
  4. "Google Scholar citations" . Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. Beratan, DN (1991). "Protein electron transfer rates set by the bridging secondary and tertiary structure". Science. 252 (5010): 1285–1288. Bibcode:1991Sci...252.1285B. doi:10.1126/science.1656523. PMID   1656523 . Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  6. Guinness Book of World Records 2006, ISBN   978-0-553-58906-1
  7. "OQO Model 2+ wins Popular Mechanics Editor's Choice Award" . Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  8. "Business 2.0 Editors' Choice: OQO" . Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  9. "PopSci's Best Of CES: OQO Model 02". 18 January 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  10. "OQO Wins The Stevie Award – 2008 Best Product". 2008-06-23. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  11. "OQO Wins Japans 2007 Good Design Award". 2007-11-13. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  12. "Startup Company Lawyer". 4 May 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  13. "First Meeting of The Quantified Self Meetup Group" . Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  14. "Quantified Self: Joe Betts-LaCroix on the 28-Hour Day". Quantified Self. 2011-09-22. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  15. 1 2 "VentureBeat: Genome Entrepreneurs". 2012-04-21. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  16. "Oakland Futurist: Health Extension Salon". 2013-01-26. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  17. "Health Extension: Mission" . Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  18. "Bloomberg Businessweek: Building a Better Mouse Cage". Bloomberg News . Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  19. "BioCentury: Digital Preclinical" . Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  20. "Xconomy: Silicon Valley Vets Aim to Shake Up Preclinical Testing With Vium". 2016-06-02. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  21. "Recursion Acquires Vium Bolstering Its Efforts to Industrialize Drug Discovery". 28 July 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  22. "Joe Betts-LaCroix - Angel List" . Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  23. "Spring Discovery Raises $4.25M in Seed Funding". 2018-02-26. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  24. Y Combinator's Summer Reading List 2017 . Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  25. "Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death". MIT Technology Review. 8 March 2023.
  26. "Retro Biosciences Raises $180 Million With Goal of Extending Lifespan By 10 Years" . Retrieved 12 April 2022.