Generation Lab, a longevity startup, is pitching an injectable two-drug combination called 1 Generation to influencers and a “private cohort” — and claiming it can “block the systemic spread of aging.” The company won’t say which two drugs are involved, and the evidence so far consists of self-reported anecdotes from a handful of insiders, including improved erections, longer badminton games, and “increased bowel movements.”
The scientific credibility here rests almost entirely on Irina Conboy, the UC Berkeley researcher known for parabiosis experiments that join the circulatory systems of old and young mice. Conboy says the drug combo mimics those youthful effects without the grisly blood-sharing. She and her husband, along with 26-year-old CEO Alina Su, have been injecting themselves for the past two months. Su claims there’s “a long wait list including a lot of celebrities.”
The red flags are substantial. The company plans a trial of a hundred or more people, but it’s already offering the treatment before any firm evidence exists. The trial will be led by Matt Cook of BioReset Medical, a network of clinics offering what the author characterizes as unproven treatments like stem-cell injections. Cook was previously reported to have recommended COVID-19 treatments the FDA called “fraudulent,” including inhaling amniotic fluid from a nebulizer. Cook himself admits his initial confidence the combo would work was “zero.”
To his credit, Cook is candid about his confusion: “I have many more questions than I have answers… I still feel like I don’t understand exactly what the mechanism is.” That’s a fair description of the entire longevity field. No age-reversal drug has ever been proven to work in humans, and a company that won’t name its ingredients while courting influencers is following a playbook all too familiar from past anti-aging hype cycles. Conboy’s scientific pedigree deserves attention, but it doesn’t substitute for controlled data.
