About Retro

Retro Biosciences’ mission is to extend healthy human lifespan by 10 years.

Founded in 2021 by Joe Betts-LaCroix and backed by Sam Altman’s $180M personal investment, Retro Biosciences is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on treating the underlying cellular drivers of aging. Rather than targeting individual symptoms, Retro is attacking aging at the root. The company is advancing multiple programs in parallel, with its lead Alzheimer’s candidate already in human trials.

Here is the confidential deck.

What Retro Is Building

Retro approaches aging as a systems problem, using two core strategies:

1. Epigenetic reprogramming to reset aged cells to healthier states

2. Cell replacement to swap damaged cells with newly generated ones

This platform approach allows Retro to pursue multiple age-related diseases while building reusable infrastructure across programs.

Pipeline

Retro currently has four programs at varying stages of development:

• Alzheimer’s (Phase 1): Lead program entered human trials in December 2025, targeting toxic protein buildup in the brain. Phase 2 planned for 2026–2027.

• Brain immune cell replacement (Preclinical): Microglia replacement therapy with strong animal data and scalable manufacturing. IND expected in 2026.

• Blood stem cell replacement (Preclinical): Platform targeting blood system rejuvenation, starting with aplastic anemia. IND expected in 2027.

• Early gene therapy program: Proof-of-concept work focused on reversing cellular aging.

Differentiation

• OpenAI Partnership: Built specialized AI that designs better proteins for their therapies. The AI has made their cell reprogramming process 50 times more efficient, which is critical since older patients (their target market) are harder to treat. AI-designed proteins already incorporated into FDA filings.

• Infrastructure: 10,000-animal research facility enables 2-day study starts vs. 4 months at external labs. In-house drug manufacturing facility (most biotechs outsource this).

• Capital Efficiency: Spent only ~$80M to advance multiple programs to human trials (unusually disciplined for biotech).

Market Opportunity

• TAM exceeds $2T globally (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cardiovascular, cancer, metabolic disorders)

• Alzheimer's alone affects 50M+ globally with no disease-modifying therapies currently available

• Population over 65 projected to double by 2050

Valuation Case

Management uses a net present value (NPV) approach to estimate pipeline value, accounting for risk, development timelines, and cost.

• NPV of initial four programs: ~$14B

• NPV of full 19-program pipeline: $50B–$100B+

Vertex Pharmaceuticals ($100B+ market cap) is cited as an aspirational comp for science-first execution at scale.

Traction

• First-in-human achieved December 2025 for RTR242, hitting 18-month timeline

• Successful FDA INTERACT meeting in October 2024 for HSC program (positive feedback from regulators)

• Scaled HSC manufacturing from 0 to 4.1B cells in 2024

Team

• Joe Betts-LaCroix (CEO): repeat founder, former YC partner, 200+ patents, 1,900+ academic citations, Harvard/MIT/Caltech background

• Sheng Ding (Scientific Co-Founder): leading researcher in cellular reprogramming

• 76-person team with a flat structure and strong ownership culture

Key Risks

• Early-stage clinical programs with high binary risk

• Aging biology complexity; field has historically struggled to translate academic breakthroughs into therapeutics

• Execution risk across multiple parallel programs

• Dependence on continued OpenAI partnership and access

Notable Investors

• Sam Altman ($180M personal investment in Seed, plus additional commitment in Series A through family office)

• Sandro Salsano (founder/president of Salsano Group)

• 4P Capital (German impact fund with former Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler as a venture partner)

Press

• Accelerating life sciences research

• Retro Bio commences first-in-human trial

• Sam Altman-Backed Startup Aims to Add 10 Years to Human Life Through Stem Cell Tech

• OpenAI is trying to extend human life, with help from a longevity startup
  
  

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Notes

1. LFG+ Membership: LFG+ Members receive priority access to limited allocation and reduced economics — here are our membership details. To receive LFG+ benefits for this deal, you must activate your membership before the commitment deadline.

2. Limited Information: the information available to us and what we can share will be limited due to the nature of this deal.