Joe Betts-LaCroix
Co-Founder and CEO · Retro Biosciences
San Francisco, CA, United States
Impact
Joe Betts-LaCroix is co-founder and CEO of Retro Biosciences, a company whose stated goal is to add ten years to healthy human lifespan by developing therapies aimed at cellular drivers of aging. Retro was seeded with a $180 million round provided by Sam Altman and in May 2026 announced the initial close of a further round at a $1.8 billion pre-money valuation, led by 4P Capital. The company reports advancing RTR242, an oral therapeutic designed to restart autophagy, into a Phase I trial, alongside cell therapy (including iPSC-derived hematopoietic stem cells), tissue reprogramming and AI-enabled protein engineering programmes. Before Retro, Betts-LaCroix trained in biophysics at Harvard, MIT and Caltech, where he worked on electron-tunnelling rates in proteins. He co-founded OQO, maker of a very small Windows computer later acquired by Google, and Vium, an automation- and AI-driven in vivo research company acquired by Recursion, and spent several years as a part-time partner at Y Combinator. He leads a large privately financed effort to turn aging biology into clinical-stage therapeutics.
Metrics
- USD 180M raised by Retro Biosciences as of 2026-09-23 source ↗
Research output
6 works · 251 citations · h-index 5 OpenAlex ↗
Selected publications
- Challenges and recommendations for the translation of biomarkers of aging ↗ 2024 · 110 citations
- Development of the Digital Arthritis Index, a Novel Metric to Measure Disease Parameters in a Rat Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis ↗ 2017 · 45 citations
- Longevity biotechnology: bridging AI, biomarkers, geroscience and clinical applications for healthy longevity ↗ 2024 · 43 citations
- Great Desire for Extended Life and Health amongst the American Public ↗ 2016 · 30 citations
- Defining a longevity biotechnology company ↗ 2023 · 23 citations