Oracle chief looks for Fountain of Youth

Larry Ellison, Oracle's 55-year-old chief executive, has always been mesmerised with science and age. For this reason, the world's second richest man has been pumping millions of dollars into age research.

He has funded research at the University of California on DHEA, a hormone some believe could retard aging, and through his private venture fund, Tako Ventures, he has made investments in several other biotech companies.

This month, Oracle has invested in Myriad Genetics which researches the human proteome.

Ellison has also committed $20m a year to research into the ageing process through the newly created Ellison Medical Foundation. The foundation supports basic biomedical research on ageing as well as global infectious diseases.

As of January, the foundation is investing $45m a year, $25m of which is to fight the diseases.

In Ellison's autobiography, The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison, Nicola Miner, the daughter of Oracle co-founder Robert Miner, said: "Dad and Larry were both into living forever - the Fountain of Youth kind of stuff. I think that my dad's illness really freaked him out. He always said that Larry had a hard time facing his own mortality."

Although Ellison and Oracle declined to comment, in a previous speech Ellison said that the cost of health care for an ageing population "will literally bankrupt the nation".

"Boomers, including myself, are a demographic Sword of Damocles hanging over the necks of younger generations," he said.

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