Longevity & biobanking · Adult stem cell storage
Forever Labs
An Ann Arbor company that cryopreserves an adult’s own stem cells against the possibility of a future therapy. After eleven years the storage business is real, and the therapies the cells are saved for are not approved.
A phone call about turning 40
Mark Katakowski had spent about fifteen years at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit building mesenchymal stem cell therapies for stroke and brain injury. The cells worked. They also got worse as their donor aged.
In 2015, approaching his fortieth birthday, he called his friend Steven Clausnitzer, a former American Express executive. As Clausnitzer later told the On Books podcast, Katakowski said: “I want to bank my stem cells. I’m turning 40 and I want to bank my stem cells,” and he was like, “What are you talking about?” They went looking for a company that would store adult stem cells the way cord blood banks store a newborn’s, could not find one, and built it.
“I always say the company was born out of our own midlife crisis,” Clausnitzer said. By the summer of 2017 Forever Labs was in Y Combinator’s Summer batch, and Clausnitzer was telling TechCrunch that the field had a credibility problem. “There are places offering stem cell therapy and Botox,” he said.
The half of the problem that is solved
The biology underneath the pitch is not in dispute. A 2008 study in Mechanisms of Ageing and Development by Stolzing and colleagues, which the company still cites, found that marrow mesenchymal stem cell numbers fall from childhood into adulthood while markers of oxidative damage and senescence rise, and concluded that marrow stem cell fitness declines with age.
If you accept that, the case for collecting early follows. Katakowski put it to Observer in 2018: “The decline of stem cells in aging bodies underpins a lot of age-related diseases. So we thought: instead of treating those diseases, what if we replace the loss of stem cells?”
The other half is not solved. The FDA’s standing consumer alert states: “Currently, the only stem cell products that are FDA-approved for use in the United States consist of blood-forming stem cells (also known as hematopoietic progenitor cells) that are derived from umbilical cord blood.” A customer banking cells in 2026 is buying an option on a market that does not exist yet. Asked on Hacker News in 2017 how long banked cells last, Katakowski gave the answer the evidence supports: “We haven’t been cryopreserving stem cells for 60 years, so that is impossible to know.”
Who built it, and what it costs
The founder list depends on who is telling it. Wikipedia names Katakowski, Ben Buller, Laith Farjo and Clausnitzer. Y Combinator’s directory lists Clausnitzer, Edward Cibor and Katakowski. Farjo, an orthopedic surgeon, became chief medical officer and still appears in the published provider network.
The price has moved. TechCrunch reported $2,500 plus $250 a year in 2017, or $7,000 for life; CNBC used the $7,000 figure in 2018. By late 2020 Clausnitzer told Mixergy the entry price was $1,500 plus $250 a year, and gave the only client number on record: “you typically don’t share that info, but, uh, it’s right around a thousand.” Six years later there is no updated figure in public. Today the company publishes no headline price, only financing examples of $83 and $278 a month over 36 payments at zero percent, which multiply out to about $2,988 and about $10,008.
The founders left the bank
On May 8, 2025 the company announced that SuperShot Inc., a platelet-rich plasma venture, was being spun out, that Clausnitzer and Katakowski would lead it, and that Kevin Virgil was the new CEO. “This spinout represents a natural evolution for both companies,” Clausnitzer said.
Virgil is a West Point graduate who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment and worked in the healthcare group at UBS. His company biography says he is “leading the company’s transition from a biobank into a cutting-edge regenerative manufacturing platform.” In June 2026 the company announced a partnership with AcCELLerated Biologics of Jupiter, Florida. Florida is the point: a state law effective July 1, 2025 lets physicians there market and administer stem cell therapies the FDA has not approved, for orthopedics, wound care and pain management.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Federal approval status | The FDA consumer alert of July 22, 2020 says the only approved stem cell products in the United States are cord blood derived blood-forming stem cells, and that none of the promoted regenerative products are approved for orthopedic, neurological, cardiovascular or pulmonary conditions. | Public record |
| Tissue establishment registration | A query of the FDA Human Cell and Tissue Establishment Registration database on Sep 23, 2026 for any establishment named Forever returned no records, in any state, active or inactive. | Not found |
| Company regulatory claim | The science page states the company “works only with autologous (self-derived) cells and operates within the FDA’s Section 361 pathway (21 CFR Part 1271).” The May 2025 release says it “operates America’s only ISO-certified adult stem cell processing laboratory.” Florida’s law requires accreditation by NMDP, WMDA, AABB or AATB. ISO is not on that list. | Company-stated |
| A 2017 description of approval | TechCrunch wrote: “The startup is FDA-approved to bank these cells and is offering the service in seven states.” The FDA does not approve tissue banks. Establishments handling 361 HCT/Ps register and list, which is not approval. | Differs from the record |
| Trials and papers | A ClinicalTrials.gov search on Sep 23, 2026 returned zero studies, and no PubMed-indexed paper by or about the company was found. TechCrunch reported in 2017 that it had “proposed its own clinical trial”; none has been registered. | Not found |
| Patents | Five US patents assigned to Forever Labs, Inc., granted Apr 13, 2021 to Apr 14, 2026, naming Mark Katakowski and Ann Hozeska-Solgot, covering a dynamic cell incubator and extracellular vesicle isolation. | Public record |
| Where the cells sit | In November 2020 the CEO said samples were held at Brooks Life Sciences in Indianapolis, a third party biorepository. Since 2025 the company has described its own laboratories, in Michigan and, as of June 2026, Florida. | Company-stated |
| Evidence for the eventual use | A 2024 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Endocrinology pooled 18 randomized trials and 1,174 participants and found preliminary evidence that locally administered MSCs relieve pain and improve function in knee osteoarthritis, with high heterogeneity and short follow-up. No trial tests whether cells banked years earlier work better. | Peer reviewed |
| Sector context | A 2021 survey in Cell Stem Cell counted 1,480 US businesses operating 2,754 clinics selling purported stem cell treatments, and the FDA has brought warning letters and court action across the sector. | Peer reviewed |
Read plainly: this is a storage company whose value depends on events that have not happened. The cell biology it cites is real and the age-related decline it describes is measured. What is missing is any registered trial, any published result, and any tissue establishment registration under its own name in the federal database governing the pathway it says it operates under.
What to watch
- Whether an establishment named Forever Labs appears in the FDA tissue establishment register.
- Whether the Michigan and Florida laboratories obtain AABB or AATB accreditation, which Florida’s own law requires and ISO certification does not supply.
- Any registered trial or published preclinical result from the company or from SuperShot.
- An updated client count or revenue disclosure, the first since 2020.
- How the FDA responds to the Florida law, which Holland & Knight has written conflicts with federal law.
In their words
“The decline of stem cells in aging bodies underpins a lot of age-related diseases. So we thought: instead of treating those diseases, what if we replace the loss of stem cells?”
Mark Katakowski, co-founder, Observer, 2018 · Interview
“We haven’t been cryopreserving stem cells for 60 years, so that is impossible to know.”
Mark Katakowski, Hacker News, October 2017 · Founder
“There are places offering stem cell therapy and Botox.”
Steven Clausnitzer, co-founder, TechCrunch, August 2017 · Independent
“the evolving research that may open opportunities to use such cells”
Agnieszka Czechowicz, assistant professor of medicine, Stanford, CNBC, May 2018 · Independent
“Our labs in Michigan and Florida enable individuals to preserve their biological potential at its peak, with rigorous testing, cryopreservation, and secure long-term storage.”
Kevin Virgil, CEO, partnership release, June 2026 · Company release
“More than four times as many businesses than were identified 5 years ago are selling stem cell products that are not FDA-approved and lack convincing evidence of safety and efficacy.”
Leigh Turner, UC Irvine, Cell Stem Cell, November 2021 · Peer reviewed
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordFDA Human Cell and Tissue Establishment Registration query, name Forever
- Public recordConsumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells
- Public recordClinicalTrials.gov search, zero studies
- Public recordPatents assigned to FOREVER LABS, INC.
- Peer reviewedAge-related changes in human marrow MSCs
- Peer reviewedMesenchymal stem cells for osteoarthritis, meta-analysis
- Peer reviewedThe American stem cell sell in 2021
- IndependentNew Florida Law Attempts to Provide Leeway for Certain Stem Cell Treatments
- IndependentFlorida Stem Cell Law Flaunts the FDA
- IndependentForever Labs preserves young stem cells
- IndependentTech workers are paying $7,000 to freeze their stem cells
- IndependentThis Stem-Cell Freezing Startup May Make ‘Forever Young’ a Reality
- InterviewYC-backed stem cell banking
- InterviewStem Cell Banking and Ending Aging
- CompanySpinout of SuperShot Inc. and new CEO
- CompanyAcCELLerated Biologics partnership
- CompanyForever Labs website and CEO page
- CompanyLaunch HN: Forever Labs (YC S17)
- CompanyForever Labs Receives $2M
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
