Basal human desires never change: to be positively unique, sexually desired, to live in luxury, to be popular, to hold power, and finally, to achieve immortality. The idea of eternal life can be found in almost every religious text, and even the world’s oldest surviving literary epic, the Epic of Gilgamesh, contains poems detailing Gilgamesh’s search for immortality after confronting the inevitability of death following the loss of his companion, Enkidu. Nearly 4,000 years later, a hot microphone caught the presidents of Russia and China discussing whether advances in medicine and biotechnology might finally bring humanity closer to that ancient ambition.
During the exchange, Russia’s Vladimir Putin spoke about advances in organ transplantation, while China’s Xi Jinping seemed cautiously optimistic, citing predictions that humans would be able to live up to 150 years of age this century. Russia has reportedly directed billions of dollars’ worth of funding towards organ transplantation research and regenerative medicine. In an era where genetic engineering and biological manipulation are possible, where actual artificial intelligence exists and space travel is a reality, how close are we to extending the human lifespan, and what is the science behind it?
Unlike traditional pharmaceutical research, which historically focused on designing chemicals that interact with biological targets, biotechnology uses biological systems themselves to tackle various problems, including medical treatments. Over the years, biotechnology has become integral to healthcare, with the cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, one of the world’s best-selling drugs, as an example of its success. More recently, a subfield called longevity biotechnology has become incredibly fashionable.
The aim is simple, even if the mission is not: to treat the underlying biological mechanisms of age-related diseases, resulting in increased healthspan (the period of life spent in good health) or lifespan (the period of time one is alive). The idea of treating ageing or age-related illnesses is nothing new. The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, is said to have died from suspected mercury poisoning in his search for the elixir of immortality.
Skip ahead to the 1920s, when Alexander Bogdanov pioneered blood transfusions from the young to the old as a method to slow the ageing process (there is little proof that it worked). Numerous books and journals have since been published on tackling the ageing process in various ways, and companies have been founded to do the same. Yet, in recent years, investment in longevity biotech has skyrocketed.
A recent Forbes article called it the billionaire’s next big bet after artificial intelligence. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, longevity biotech companies raised approximately $3.74bn. There are now academic journals dedicated to ageing and longevity.
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