Exit: Altos Labs acquires Dorian, the Palo Alto startup founded by two Italian scientists

Dorian Therapeutics , a startup founded in Palo Alto by Maddalena Adorno with Benedetta di Robilant, has been acquired by Altos Labs , the giant

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the strategic alignment on new longevity therapies is clear.

Dorian is a spin-off of Stanford Medical School, founded to develop therapies capable of combating cellular aging and related diseases. "Studying longevity isn't just science. It's a cultural and social revolution we're facing. The population is aging more and more, and in a few years it will become a major problem. We must prepare ourselves," Adorno told us in an episode of the series Beautiful Minds .

Maddalena discovered that our cells contain a rejuvenation program that can be reawakened. She understood this through her study of Down syndrome. This research was considered, in 2013, one of the major breakthroughs in medicine at Stanford and received several million in research funding from CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

I wanted to take the risk of doing something no one else was thinking of. You know that saying: when you're in the dark, you can only find your keys where the streetlight is? Well, you have to hope the keys are there. I moved the streetlight. And I found wonderful things!

From there, Adorno developed the senoblocker technology and decided to found Dorian Therapeutics in 2018, together with another Italian scientist, Benedetta di Robilant. "Academia is a good place for human knowledge to expand; the world is a great place to make it all happen."

Dorian has raised funding from numerous international investors and accelerators, including Y Combinator, Stanford-StartX, Blumberg Capital, The Longevity Fund, and Pacificn 8. Thanks to small molecules developed by the startup, the harmful effects of senescent cells are inhibited and the body's regenerative processes are reactivated, including stem cell function and the expression of youth-related genes. Promising preclinical results have demonstrated its efficacy in models of pulmonary fibrosis and osteoarthritis.

The acquisition was announced on May 26, 2025. Altos Labs, founded in 2017 and funded in 2022 with $3 billion from investors including Jeff Bezos, Foresite Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, and Yuri Milner, is built around a wonderful idea: improving what is known as the healthspan, the period of life in which we live in good health. Its board has four Nobel Prize winners: two in chemistry, Frances Arnold and Jennifer Doudna, and two Nobel Prize winners in medicine, David Baltimore and Shinya Yamanaka.

Technically, the synergy is evident: together, these two lines of research aim not only to block the damage caused by senescent cells, but also to promote active tissue rejuvenation. This approach could accelerate the arrival of new drugs in clinical trials.

"I'm thrilled; I love closing the loop. This acquisition will benefit patients around the world," Maddalena Adorno told us recently. "Becoming part of Altos means we can accelerate our work with the support of an unprecedented ecosystem of scientists and resources.