Meet the man who is ageing backwards

The multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has made himself a guinea pig for pioneering longevity research. He talks to Hamish MacBain about how he escaped a life of depression to lead the way in biohacking

ORDINARILY, I do not like to so immediately trumpet the message of my interview subject, but… well, when I come face to face with Bryan Johnson at his home in Venice, California, he does, undeniably, look significantly younger than he appears in all the recent photographs. This will of course be largely down to his $2 million-a-year anti-ageing programme — known as Project Blueprint — that the 46-year-old says has reversed his biological age, giving him the heart of a 37-year-old and the lung capacity of an 18-year-old.

But, at least aesthetically, the hair cut also helps. His somewhat vampiric, swept back, Nick Cave style having very recently been shorn to a close crop. Somewhat taken aback by this new look, I begin by asking, somewhat flippantly, whether hair and other more aesthetic aspects are given as much thought and attention by him and his team of roundthe-clock doctors as the more vital organs of the human body.

“Yes,” he says, immediately and seriously. “Rejuvenation is everything. So we worked very hard on oral health, on hair, on skin. It definitely is a top priority. We are trying to do every organ in the body. And we try not to leave out anything.”