Bryan Johnson, a 48-year-old venture capitalist and biohacking influencer from California, has revealed that he was diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis, a chronic condition in which the immune system attacks the stomach lining. "My stomach is eating itself," he wrote.
In a social media post on 21 July, Johnson said he had "cloned" himself "as a newborn." He wrote: "I just cloned myself...as a newborn. With this clone, I can: + become my own blood boy + test therapies on the clone + grow organs for transplantation + develop new treatments + inject young cells. This baby-bryan lives in a petri dish for now."
The cloning process
Johnson described the experiment as venturing into the "frontier of new paths" in anti-ageing. He outlined the steps: "blood draw > my cells were extracted > yamanaka factors applied > reset epigenetic age > restoring them to an embryonic-like state." The cells, he said, are now pluripotent and can be differentiated into "hundreds of cell types," including neurons, cardiomyocytes and retinal cells.
"As cells age, they accumulate epigenetic errors compounding into dysfunction and disease. This technology gives us a path to reverse aging," he wrote. He added that being diagnosed with an incurable disease was "one of the best things that has happened to me in a long time," opening up "a frontier of new paths to repair and strengthen the body."
He also acknowledged the idea may be unsettling: "This may be scary to some people...a dystopian future. But, for others, they will see it as the inevitable future of health. Clinical trials are already using this technology to restore dopamine neurons for Parkinson's, heart health and eyesight."
Second thoughts
Slightly more than a week after the initial post, Johnson published an ominous message: "Been thinking things over and wonder if I've taken this whole longevity thing too far."
Reports suggest Johnson has invested up to $10 million in his private longevity research, which has included experiments such as receiving blood plasma transfusions from his son and following a dietary supplement regimen.
