John Sperling1 Wants You To Live Forever

By Author: rdfgdr
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He founded the University of Phoe-nix2. He also cloned a pet cat. His latest iconoclastic quest; Research, develop, and sell the new science of longevity3 .
The genie4 gives you three wishes, so of course you ask for money. Next you ask for wisdom to help you do something worthwhile with all that cash. Finally, you'd like time enough to pursue a project that ensures your legacy.
In 1994, John Sperling rubbed the lamp5 , and his company went public. The IPO of the Apollo Group6 , parent company of the for-profit University of Phoenix, netted him almost half a billion dollars. Three years later, Sperling read a newspaper account speculating that a gene responsible for dramatically extending the lifespans of worms could also be found in humans. Sperling, then 77, wanted to know more. So, with a billionaire's logic, he hired his cardiologist7 to make a thorough search of the science of longevity. The doctor reported that some startling findings were beginning to trickle8 out of academic labs, but that nobody was translating those results into human applications. Right then, Sperling decided how to spend his new windfall9.
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... Counting the stock he owns in the Apollo Group companies, that fortune is fast approaching $3 billion, most of which he says he plans to donate to research when he dies. If he follows through, Sperling will have created the single biggest private program to enhance human biology. Used to create an endowment, Sperling's money would generate at least $ 150 million a year - forever.
The anti-aging movement attracts all sorts of philanthropists interested in life extension and transhumanism. But Sperling gives different. While others are messianic10 about immortality, Sperling remains a pragmatist. He wants to see results now—and if those results are base hits rather than home runs, so be it." He's told his staff that everything he funds should have a scientific or economic payoff within five years.
Even a stepwise12 approach needs some seed money, and so far Sperling has planted more than $50 million. His first move was to form Kronos Group, a for-profit medical practice catering to the wealthy. The Kronos clinic opened in 1998 in an upscale13 Scottsdale, Arizona, shopping mall. At the clinic, which looks more like a luxury boutique hotel than a medical facility, patients pay $4,500 to undergo a battery of "specialized diagnostic tests.
Kronos is a one-stop shop. Blood drawn from patients in Scottsdale is sent to a Kronos lab in Phoenix, where it is churned15 and analyzed by scientists looking for sex hormone-binding globulin16, liver aspartate aminotransferase17, ceruloplasmin18, and other biomarkers so obscure most doctors have never heard of them. Based on the results, Kronos doctors lay out drug, dietary, and exercise plans. Then patients can buy the drugs and supplements from a Kronos-owned pharmacy.
Originally, the Kronos concept was "anti-aging" medicine, but the clinic has since dropped all references to anti-aging and life extension - concepts suspect as snake oil19 to many doctors - in favor of a new mantra20: "optimal health. " The phrase is deliberately vague, and Thatcher, who's become one of Sperling's half-dozen key advisers, ties himself in knots21 trying to explain it. "We're on the edge, not the fringe," he says of the "Kronos Way. " "We're trying desperately to keep one foot in the mainstream. You can't be just on the fringe and make a difference. "
Exeter's most intriguing maneuvers are in the fields of stem cells, cloning, and what has become known as "regenerative medicine. " It almost bought PPL, the company that created Dolly the sheep, but the deal fell through. 22 In 2001, Exeter formed Viagen from the ashes of GenomicFX, a defunct23 animal genetics company in Austin, Texas. And just last June, Viagen bought Prolin-ia, a livestock cloning firm headed by Steve Slice, a pioneer researcher in animal cloning and human embryonic stem cells at the University of Georgia. The Prolinia purchase is a perfect example of the Sperling philosophy. The company came with an immediate and practical source of income: a research agreement with Smithfield Foods, the world's largest swine breeder, to improve the genetics of its herds. Right now, there's money in farm animals. But the roll-up also creates a facility that could someday apply genetic, cloning, and stem cell technologies to the high-paying customers that patronize24 the Kronos clinics. "The next real market is for biological therapeutics," says Thatcher. "We will move into humans. "