Biological Estate Planning

Your genome
is your most
enduring asset.

Chromosome 24 integrates biological preservation, personal archiving, and long-term financial stewardship into a coherent continuity platform — designed to operate across generational timescales.

Request a consultation Learn the approach
78.4
Average U.S. lifespan in years — the hard ceiling we are working around.
3
Asset classes integrated. Biology. Memory. Capital. None sufficient alone.
$80B+
Global biobanking market today, growing rapidly toward $100B by decade's end.

The premise

We plan for the transfer of financial assets, real property, and personal possessions. We draft wills, establish trusts, and appoint executors. Yet the most irreplaceable inheritance — the biological information that makes us who we are — is routinely left unpreserved.

Every human life represents a singular pattern: a genome, a body, a set of lived experiences and knowledge accumulated over decades. We routinely back up our digital data, insure our lives, and invest for retirement. Yet no institution exists to archive the person who does all of this.

Continuity is the ultimate expression of legacy — preserving not just wealth and experience, but the people who created it.

Chromosome 24 is building that institution. Not a longevity clinic. Not a data company. A structured continuity service that integrates biological preservation, personal digital archiving, and long-term financial stewardship — designed to operate across generational timescales.

The science is settled. The infrastructure exists. What has been missing is a trusted integration layer — one that speaks fluently to both the laboratory and the family office, and holds both accountable over time.

Humans have 23 chromosome pairs. The 24th is the one we are designing — a synthetic chromosome loaded at conception, when the genome is most accessible. Capabilities activate selectively by time or tissue as the individual develops, modular and non-permanent. And because chromosome 24 is engineered to be lost during gamete production, it is simply reinstalled and upgraded when the next generation is conceived.

Integrated banking for a life

I — Biology

Bank the body

Cell & Genomic

Secure cryostorage of living cells, stem cells, and germline material in certified facilities. The biological substrate that makes future restoration possible under emerging reproductive science. Chain-of-custody documentation designed for multi-decade institutional custody.

Biological Banking
II — Memory

Bank the self

Digital & Physical

Structured capture and encrypted archiving of a life’s digital record — medical histories, photographs, video, genomic data, and personal narrative. Platform-agnostic preservation in formats designed to outlast current technology by centuries.

Personal Archive
III — Capital

Bank the future

Legal & Financial

Long-term trust structures that compound across decades and finance future stewardship, restoration, and care. Generational wealth created in advance of the generation it serves — coordinated with existing wealth advisors and estate counsel.

Continuity Planning

Normalization is already underway

The technologies underlying Chromosome 24’s platform are not speculative — they are operational. What has changed is the trajectory of public acceptance, regulatory attention, and scientific capability in reproductive biology.

Biobanking Cryopreservation of eggs, sperm, cord blood, and stem cells is now a common consumer practice. The global biobanking market is expanding rapidly into personalized and longevity applications.
Animal Cloning Over 25 species have been cloned to date, including primates. Pet cloning services now market directly to consumers in multiple countries. De-extinction leaders like Colossal are normalizing the category at scale.
Reproductive Science Human embryo editing is under active clinical consideration. Scientists have produced human egg cells from skin tissue. The question of reproductive restoration has moved from ethics classrooms to regulatory bodies.
Digital Archiving Digital twin frameworks are deployed in healthcare and engineering for living individuals. Personal AI models trained on an individual’s data are emerging as a commercial category.
Financial Structures Multi-generational trust structures, family offices, and endowed institutions already operate on 100+ year timescales. The financial infrastructure for long-horizon stewardship exists — it has simply not been applied here.
The long view

Designed for civilizational time

Reproductive biotechnology advances faster than the regulatory and social frameworks that govern it. The history of IVF, egg freezing, and preimplantation genetics suggests a predictable arc: technical proof, ethical debate, quiet normalization.

Chromosome 24 is built for clients who read that arc correctly and act early. Our institutional design draws on models that have survived centuries — endowed universities, perpetual trusts, and mission-locked foundations — because biological custody requires precisely that kind of durability and foresight.

Now

Biological estate established

Cell deposit, genomic sequencing, archive structure, trust formation.

5–15 yrs

Regulatory landscape matures

Somatic cell therapy expands; reproductive science normalizes further.

20–50 yrs

Archive passes to next stewards

Endowment compounds; institutional knowledge transfers.

Centuries

Genomic and personal record intact

Options remain open that cannot be created retroactively.

Who this is for

Chromosome 24 is a considered service for a small number of individuals at any given time. Early participation is by invitation.

The foresighted individual

You have taken care of your financial estate. You understand that biological preservation is the logical next step — and that the window to act is not indefinitely open.

The family office

Your clients expect comprehensive stewardship. Biological continuity planning is an emerging fiduciary dimension. We work alongside your existing advisors, not in place of them.

The scientific founder

You have thought carefully about what your genome represents. You want custody structures that match the seriousness of that thinking, held by an institution built to last.

Leadership

Andrew Hessel
Andrew Hessel
Founder & CEO
  • Humane Genomics — Co-founder, YC S21
  • Human Genome Project-write — Chair
  • Singularity University — Core Faculty

Chromosome 24 was conceived by Andrew Hessel — a synthetic biologist and biological futurist who has spent his career at the intersection of genome engineering and long-range institutional thinking. The company reflects a single conviction: that the tools to preserve a human life are here, and that Chromosome 24 is the institution built to access them.

Hessel has built and led organizations at the frontier of biology for over twenty years — most recently as co-founder of Humane Genomics, developing programmable viruses for precision oncology, and as chair of the Human Genome Project-write, a global initiative to make writing DNA as accessible as reading it.

The tools to preserve a human life are here. Chromosome 24 is the institution to access them.

Begin a conversation

Consultations are by introduction or application. We work with a limited number of founding clients who will shape the model and establish the first archives.

Request a consultation