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Rapamycin was the start. This is what comes next.
Krister Kauppi wants to solve aging. That became clear the first time I met him at the Longevity Biotech Fellowship retreat in Sweden back in 2024 - the same event that helped galvanize my work at LEVITY. My fellow Swede is all in on that mission, no doubt about it.
But for a long time in the longevity community Krister was primarily known for his expertise in rapamycin. And sure: mTOR inhibitors like rapamycin repeatedly show lifespan and healthspan benefits in animal models.
But if rapamycin were the lone hero in Krister’s script, the ending would still result in tragedy. It might slow aging, but it won’t solve it.
In the past year, though, something has clearly shifted. Krister’s ambitions have accelerated, and following his upward trajectory has been invigorating in itself.
More concretely: His venture, Rapamycin Longevity Lab (RLL), is about to combine “slow aging” with “reverse aging.”
On November 10, RLL enters a new partnership with the Reprogramming Lab to explore chemical partial reprogramming - using small-molecule cocktails to make old cells act young again.
Most people in longevity know the Yamanaka story: four genes that can rewind a cell’s age, if you don’t push too far and turn it cancerous. Chemical reprogramming is increasingly being explored as an alternative route. It mimics the same rejuvenating effects. Yes, here’s your pill-based version of age reversal. And it has numerous benefits compared with genetic-based reprogramming. Take a look:
The idea now is to pair these chemical “rewind” signals with mTOR inhibition, the molecular brake on growth. If mTOR inhibition slows aging and reprogramming reverses it, what happens when you press both at once?
RLL will test that question on pump.science, the crypto-powered research platform where each longevity experiment is tokenized and funded in real time. Anyone can watch as worms, flies, and eventually mice live longer - or don’t. The transparency is the point: a community lab for radical life-extension experiments, unconstrained by traditional funding cycles.
The November 10 event marks the launch of this collaboration - and perhaps the start of a new phase in the field. The combination may prove synergistic; or it may just (again) expose biology’s stubborn limits. Either way, it pushes longevity research somewhere new.
And I’d like to think that Krister’s evolution tells the larger story of the movement itself. A few years ago, rapamycin felt like a revolution. Now it feels like a baseline.
Today, a small team with a big idea no longer needs a billion-dollar lab to make a dent. The tools of decentralized science allow them to test, share, and iterate in public view, while AI scouts the molecular frontier like a tireless guide. Somewhere in that combinatorial wilderness, a genuine breakthrough could be waiting. Krister’s experimental approach embodies that shift: a new kind of science built on openness, speed, and sheer audacity.
