Competition Aims to Radically Increase Healthy Lifespan in Mice

Renowned epigenetics expert Dr. Craig A. Cooney of The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences announced today that he is entering the competition to win the Methuselah Mouse Prize (Mprize). The Mprize, a scientific research prize aimed at encouraging scientists to find a way to reverse the aging process, is a primary activity of the Methuselah Foundation. The Mprize fund continues to grow and currently stands at more than $3 Million. Prizes will be awarded to research groups that can most successfully extend the lifespan of laboratory mice.

“Age-related diseases cause people to die much younger than they should,” said Dr. Cooney, “and from my research I foresee the possibility of slowing down or even curing these diseases. The Mprize is a great way to raise public awareness that the degeneration of aging is not inevitable — I am looking forward to joining this effort.”

Dr. Cooney studies DNA methylation, a part of the superstructure (“epigenetics”) of the DNA code through which cells prevent specific genes from being inappropriately turned on. This epigenetic “silencing” of genes allows the body to specialize the function of its cells, so that a given cell uses only that fraction of the total genetic library of the entire body that is appropriate to its function in the body. For example, in order to play their role in the body, liver cells need access to the genes for detoxification of alcohol, but not to other genes needed for the unique functions of lung, heart, or kidney cells. Abnormal DNA methylation patterns are associated with many diseases — most notably cancer, in which so-called “tumor suppressor” genes are often inappropriately silenced. In his lab, Dr. Cooney studies how the methylation pattern of DNA can be changed by drugs and nutrients, and how this affects gene expression, metabolism, and possibly lifespan.

Dr. Cooney and his group are using a novel approach to studying aging in mice. Unlike most studies to date, Dr. Cooney’s group treats female mice before they give birth, instead of treating only the progeny. In this way, the effect of treatment of the pregnant mother on her offsprings’ lifespan can be measured. This important work is being supported by a $5 Million National Institute of Aging Grant.

Methuselah Foundation co-founder, David Gobel, commented, “We’re excited to welcome Dr. Cooney as a serious and well-funded participant in the Mprize competition.” Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the Methuselah Foundation’s Chairman and Chief Science Officer, said about Cooney’s work, “I believe that Dr. Cooney’s approach will contribute significantly to the growing body of research, which could realize extended healthy human lifespans in this generation.”

About Dr. Craig Cooney

Craig Cooney, Ph.D. obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis. He proposed the basis of his current work, that nutrients in and above the normal range can change DNA methylation, in 1993. Cooney is an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

About the Methuselah Foundation

The Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to accelerating the development of foreseeable, science-based therapies to combat aging. Its main activities are the funding of SENS research, and the Methuselah Mouse Prize, which is being offered to the scientific research teams that significantly extend the lifespan of middle-aged laboratory mice. Further details of the Methuselah Foundation can be found at: http://www.methuselahfoundation.org or http://www.Mprize.org

Contact:
David Gobel
Methuselah Foundation
202-306-0989
Email Contact

Wendy D. Wiley is now the 105th member of The Three Hundred, a group of ordinary philanthropists who have joined forces to enact an extraordinary change in the world: an end to the frailty, disease and death of aging.

By supporting effective paths towards a defeat for degenerative aging, you too can help bring about a future in which no-one has to suffer and die simply because they have lived long and well. Nobody signed up for that fate – and it’s time to set modern biotechnology to find a way to live far longer, healthier lives!

Here we have the latest roundup from Michael Yamashita, with a heavy focus on the good news from this past week:

http://instapundit.com/archives/032637.php
… LONGEVITY RESEARCH UPDATE: Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, and angel investor in social networking site Facebook, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and …
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http://www.valleywag.com/tech/transhumanists/valley-trick-1-always-trust-the-bearded-crackpot-201449.php
… Valley trick #1: Always trust the bearded crackpot We’re nothing if not cynics about “new hot fields.” Why do we trust former Paypal CEO Peter Thiel when he invests in biotech out of a hope to indefinitely extend the human lifespan? Because his recipient, Methuselah Foundation head Aubrey de Grey, is hairy. If you don’t …
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http://science.slashdot.org/science/06/09/20/0032201.shtml
… Paypal Co-Founder Backs Anti-Aging Research Prize Posted by kdawson on Wednesday September 20, @06:04AM from the my-mouse-is-older-than-your-mouse dept. Baldrson writes, “Anti-aging researchers, via The Methuselah Mouse Prize or M-Prize, are receiving an additional $3 million incentive to stop and reverse aging. Researchers …
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http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003732.html
… PayPal Co-Founder Donates To Reverse Aging Good news. Big money is starting to support research to conquer aging and make us young again. Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, and Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, today announced his pledge of …
Profile page: http://www.futurepundit.com
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http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/09/investing_in_th.html
… San Francisco investor Peter A. Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) is putting $3.5 million into the antiaging research pioneered by TED speaker Aubrey de Grey (see past posts on him). The money will come in annual installments of $500,000 over the next three years for a pilot project, plus matching money for every dollar donated by others to de Grey’s …
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http://giussani.typepad.com/loip/2006/09/investing_in_th.html
… San Francisco investor Peter A. Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) is putting $3.5 million into the anti-aging research pioneered by Aubrey de Grey, who spoke at my conference TEDGLOBAL last year (see past posts on him). The money will come in annual installments of $500,000 over the next three years for a pilot project, plus matching money for every …
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http://movementarian.com/2006/09/18/synthetic-biology-aging-and-venture-capital/
… Still under the weather (literally). Yesterday I noticed a post on Tim O’Reilly’s multi-author blog regarding a recent synthetic biology article in The Economist. Although The Economist has a formal policy against publishing by-lines, it was written by Nikolaj Nyholm and is fairly interesting as it tries to remain hype-free (set in contrast to …
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http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/5457
… Controversial scientist Aubrey de Grey of the Methuselah Foundation in Springfield, VA just received $3.5 million from Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former chief executive officer of the online payments system PayPal. de Gray, an aging researcher hopes to radical postpone aging and give us indefinate life spans. de Gray said, “we have vintage …
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http://blog.wired.com/biotech/index.blog?entry_id=1558831
… PayPal Founder Wants to Live Forever Topic: Life Extension PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel joined a posse of gajillionaires on the hunt for immortality on Saturday when he announced he’s pledging $3.5 million to the Methuselah Foundation, an organization founded and run by aging enemy Aubrey de Grey. De Grey says it’s a nice start, but he probably needs about $1 billion over 10 years to solve the mortality problem…
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http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/001007.html
… This is just fantastic news: Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, and Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, today announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by …
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http://paulboutin.weblogger.com/2006/09/18#a1576
… Paypal founder clicks $3.5M to Aubrey de Grey As reported in the SF Chronicle, Paypal founder Peter Thiel (pronounced “teal”) has set up a multi-millon-dollar philanthropic grant for Aubrey de Grey’s Methuselah Foundation. To my surprise, Aubrey was fond enough of my Slate piece on him last year that he invited me to the …
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http://reilly.typepad.com/cameronreilly/2006/09/paypal_cofounde.html
… From the Mprize press release today: Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, and angel investor in social networking site Facebook, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the …
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http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=182
… From the Methuselah Foundation website: Peter Thiel puts his weight behind Dr. Aubrey de Grey’s engineering blueprint for alleviating the debilities caused by aging San Francisco ““ Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge …
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http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com/2006/09/thiel-donates-35-million-to-sens.html
… Holy smokes: Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, has donated US $3.5 million to Aubrey de Grey’s Methuselah Foundation. In his words, it was pledge “to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging.” Congratulations, Aubrey! …
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http://www.uglychart.com/2006/09/18/peter-thiel-donates-to-the-mprize/
… Peter Thiel, USCF chess master, co-founder of Paypal and current president of Clarium Capital, is donating $3.5 million to the Mprize to fight aging. “Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I’m backing Dr. de Grey, because I …
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http://www.mwilliams.info/archives/007256.php
… I guess this should go in the “science” category, even though it sometimes sounds more like science fiction. Still, people are putting money where their mouths are: Peter Thiel, co-counder of PayPal, has pledged up to $3.5 million to Aubrey de Grey’s Methuselah Foundation and its research into “negligible senescence” — that is, the elimination …
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http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-6117096.html
… R&D into eternal life doesn’t come cheap If you’re going to live forever, then you’ll probably need to set aside a little something extra in that retirement account. And if you’re doing research into getting people to live forever–or at least well beyond their three score and ten–then you’ll probably need some up-front cash. To …
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http://goofyblog.net/the-first-person-to-live-to-1000-may-already-be-alive/
… [ Aubrey De Grey] From SFGATE.COM: Entrepreneur backs research on anti-aging Scientist says humans could live indefinitely A controversial scientist who hopes to help humans live for thousands of years has received a multimillion-dollar grant from a Bay Area entrepreneur. Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former chief executive officer of the …
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http://rationallongevity.blogspot.com/2006/09/35-million-pledged-to-longevity.html
… It seems that the cause of healthy life extension has an ally in Peter Thiel, founder of popular online payment service PayPal, who recently donated a tidy $3.5 million to anti-aging research. This donation includes allocations for SENS pilot projects, which is definitely good news…SENS has been discussed and debated every which way for the …
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http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2006/09/21/death-no-thank-you
… Death? No, Thank You By Jayden Devereux September 21st, 2006 [ Aubrey de Grey] The founder of PayPal just gave “mad scientist” Aubrey de Grey $3.5 million to research immortality. It’s unclear whether former PayPal CEO Peter A. Thiel did this for all of us, or just so he can guarantee his place at the front of the line for the eventual …
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http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/09/35m_for_antiagi.html>http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/09/35m_for_antiagi.html

… The Mprize-PayPal Founder pledges $3.5 Million to antiaging research, great news! $3M of it must be matched with twice as much of other people’s money, so in fact this donation is being leveraged into $9.5M, if everyone else comes though. Congratulations Dr. Aubrey de Grey! The SENS Fund counter on the right hand side of the page has yet to be …
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http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2006/09/money-for-anti-ageing-research.html
… The news around the traps this morning is that Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former chief executive officer of PayPal, has made an announcement pledging US$3.5 million to help support the Methuselah Foundation’s anti-ageing research. The Methuselah Foundation is the organisation set up by Aubrey de Grey to research technological means to halt or …
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http://thehumanfuture.blogspot.com/2006/09/paypal-co-founder-wants-to-help-you.html
… Controversial scientist Aubrey de Grey of the Methuselah Foundation in Springfield, VA just received $3.5 million from Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former chief executive officer of the online payments system PayPal. de Gray, an aging researcher hopes to radical postpone aging and give us indefinate life spans. de Gray said, “we have vintage …
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http://mutantti.blogspot.com/2006/09/kulttuurin-vuoksi.html
… Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, and angel investor in social networking site Facebook, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to …
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http://venturebeat.com/2006/09/20/silicon-valleys-search-for-fountain-of-youth-thiel-joins-ellison-in-quest/
… Silicon Valley’s search for Fountain of Youth; Thiel joins Ellison in quest. Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former chief executive officer of the online payments company, PayPal, has pledged $3.5 million “to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging,” … If there is a place where the Fountain of Youth will be discovered, it will probably be here. There is more health research, and money going to fund it, than anywhere else. And there are wealthy entrepreneurs who want to fund this sort of thing.
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http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=110006929&blogID=170081008
… Entrepreneur backs research on anti-aging Scientist says humans could live indefinitely Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Monday, September 18, 2006 A controversial scientist who hopes to help humans live for thousands of years has received a multimillion-dollar grant from a Bay Area entrepreneur. Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and …
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A disclaimer: Please note that the blogs linked to here do not represent any official position or opinions of the Methuselah Foundation, and are presented here for your reading. The blogs we present represent only the opinions of their owners and commentators.

A very warm welcome to the newest members of The Three Hundred! Congratulations to Brad A. Armstrong
Christy Warren, Kelly Roach and – of course – Peter Thiel for taking the steps necessary to build a future in which we are not threatened by age-related disease, frailty and disability. Armstrong has chosen to pledge $250,000 for his place in The Three Hundred: $10,000 a year for the next 25 years in support of rapid progress towards working therapies for aging. He says:

Over the course of all human events, there never has been any time so dynamic, vibrant and exciting as today. What a wonderful time to be alive. Because of accelerating advances, being alive today is becoming second only to being alive tomorrow. Accelerating scientific advances in understanding are enabling ever increasing, extraordinary technologic innovations. Rocketing us into a future of enormous promise. The future, is indeed, quite bright. Listen, today, you can hear the increasing drumbeat, of the modern Methusalah Warrior’s cry, as we stand taller and taller, shouting louder and louder, “LIVE LONG!…LIVE LONG!…LIVE LONG!…”

These four join a select group of philanthropists of mostly modest means. These folks, no different than you or I, have pledged to support Methuselah Foundation initiatives such as the MPrize for anti-aging research and Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) pilot research projects. It is thanks to their efforts, and the efforts of every donor, that the Methuselah Foundation grows from strength to strength.

As a reminder, Thiel’s $3 million matching grant applies to the ongoing donations of all Three Hundred members who choose to help fund SENS research conducted by the Methuselah Foundation. If you wish to see a better future, one in which our health and interest in life lasts far longer, then sign up today and help us to make it happen. There has never been a better time to put your weight behind the wheel of progress in longevity research!

The LysoSENS page here at the Methuselah Foundation has been updated with information on the researchers presently involved – scroll down on that page to see more. These folk are presently working away in search of enzymes capable of safely breaking down the harmful intracellular and extracellular aggregates that are one root cause of age-related degeneration.

We are working in the lab of Bruce Rittmann, a well-known environmental engineer, as he has the expertise to find microbes that degrade weird stuff. We hope that we can isolate enzymes from these microbes and deliver them in a manner similar to current FDA-approved treatments for heritable lysosome storage diseases, where the missing enzyme is tagged with certain sugars for targeting and then injected into the bloodstrem. You can learn more about the LysoSENS strategy from its originator and Methuselah Foundation chairperson Aubrey de Grey here (quick and easy) or here (detailed and technical).

…

Kent Kemmish is an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson. During his free time he often comes over to Tempe to help with the LysoSENS. Kent’s main contribution was metabolic profiling of our 7-ketocholesterol-degrading isolates.

Jacques Mathieu is a graduate student at Rice University, Texas. Jacques is collaborating with John on the characterization of our 7-ketocholesterol degraders. His main focus is genetics.

Justin Rebo is a graduate student at St. George University, Grenada. He has arranged to do much of the practical work for his degree at Biodesign to help with the LysoSENS. Justin helped during summer with genetic and biochemical characterization of our 7-ketocholesterol degraders.

John Schloendorn is a graduate student at Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. John is collaborating with Jacques on the characterization of our 7-ketocholesterol degraders. His main focus is biochemistry.

We wish them the best of luck in their contributions to this important field; they will be joined by many others as the Methuselah Foundation grows from strength to strength.

Peter Thiel Puts His Weight Behind Dr. Aubrey de Grey’s Engineering Blueprint for Alleviating the Debilities Caused by Aging

Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, and Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, today announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging, to be conducted under the auspices of the Methuselah Foundation, a charity co-founded and Chaired by Dr. Aubrey de Grey.

Mr. Thiel commented, “Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I’m backing Dr. de Grey, because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process, allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones.”

Mr. Thiel will donate a total of $500,000 over the next three years to fund pilot research projects intended to deliver early stage validation of the “SENS” approach to combating the debilitation caused by aging.

Additionally, from now until the end of 2009, Mr. Thiel promises to match every Dollar donated to the Methuselah Foundation for SENS research with a 50 cent matching contribution from himself, up to a maximum of $3 Million of matching funds.

Dr. de Grey said, “I am extremely grateful to Peter for his bold and visionary initiative. I have been working with leading biologists and biochemists around the world in identifying promising research projects, and with this generous donation we will go to work straightaway.”

About SENS

SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) is a detailed plan for alleviating the debilitation caused by human aging. SENS is an engineering project, reflecting the fact that aging is a medical condition and that medicine is an engineering discipline. Aging is a set of progressive changes in body composition, at the molecular and cellular level, which are side-effects of essential metabolic processes; each of these changes has the potential to be mitigated and eventually reversed. Further details of SENS can be found at: www.sens.org

About the Methuselah Foundation

The Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to accelerating the development of foreseeable, science-based therapies to combat aging. Its main activities are the funding of SENS research, and the Methuselah Mouse Prize, which is being offered to the scientific research teams that significantly extend the lifespan of middle-aged laboratory mice. Further details of the Methuselah Foundation can be found at: www.methuselahfoundation.org or www.Mprize.org

It’s time once more for Michael Yamashita’s weekly look around the blogosphere:

http://instapundit.com/archives/032519.php
… THE CONSERVATIVE ARGUMENT for life extension. … (link to TCS article)
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http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=292
… Not all conservatives go along with the anti-science attitudes of the right wing. TCS Daily challenges fellow conservatives on life extension, finding that in this case conservatives take the “pro-death” position. While I would disagree with the underlying assumption that on other issues conservatives are truly “pro-life,” and note many other issues in which conservatives oppose the true “pro-life” position, such as stem cell research, it is still refreshing to see a conservative refute fellow conservatives here: …
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http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=170
… From a year and a half ago. Life extension will ruin Christmas, did you know that? … (YouTube cut of interview with Aubrey)
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http://okfuture.net/2006/09/15/nanobots-on-comedy-central/
…Nano-wizard and futurist Ray Kurzweil is featured in this ComedyCentral take on the future of nanotechnology. From bots in the blood, to life extension, to copulating with robots . . . Courtesy of YouTube. …
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http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2006/09/conservative_life_extension.html
… Charles N.W. Keckler on TCS Daily makes a Conservative Case for Immortality. I’m reminded of Eric K. Drexler’s keynote speech at Extro 3, where he argued that cryonic suspension of recently dead was the ‘cautious and conservative thing to do’. It is a nice essay, but will hardly convince any conservatives. Because preserving the greats of the …
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http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/09/optimizing_your.html
… Existence is Wonderful: On Optimization, a story about what you ought to be doing, given your knowledge of transhumanism. And indeed it’s an important issue that I too think about all the time: is this really the best use of my time? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer… And that’s only partly because of the vast gulf between where …
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http://pimm.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/conservative-argument-for-life-extension/
… Conservative argument FOR life extension Charles N. W. Keckler, a litigator and former law professor of Washington, D.C., tries to develop an argument for conservatives to support maximum life extension in TCS Daily. His main trick is to tell “revolutionary” change from “good, innovative” change, former opposed, later supported by conservatives. …
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http://stonedeadparrot.blogspot.com/2006/09/conservative-case-for-immortality_12.html
… TCSDaily has an article by Charles Keckler looking at conservative attitudes toward life-extension . Most conservatives oppose technological advances which would extend (perhaps indefinitely) the human lifespan. Keckler tries to be fair to people like Leon Kass who oppose such life-extension, which was unexpected–usually the …
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http://interpretatio.blogspot.com/2006/09/privileging-pure.html
… Living in an age where scientific life improvement is paramount and immortality is ideal, it seems as if the characters of Holy Fire would strive for all that is above and beyond simple human life. And this is the case for the early stages of both Mia and Maya. Mia, a slave to the polity way of thinking, clearly sees life extension and the highest …
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http://layamon.livejournal.com/1312.html
… Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence “The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself – not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, … (Link to Google Video of interview with Aubrey)
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http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14454223&blogID=162331026
… I notice a lack, an overwhelming lack actually, of people enthusiastic about keeping their bodies from deterioriating to the point where they die. Do people just not care about their lives that much? Is what is going on in your mind and your reactions to this enviroment youve been thrust into just really not all that big of a deal? Ide be …
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http://interpretatio.blogspot.com/2006/09/sweet-dreams.html
… From the very beginning of the novel I wanted a certain outcome. I don’t know if maybe I’ve seen Vanilla Sky (Yeah, I like it better than then Abre Los Ojos) one too many times or what the case is, but I always figured that at the end of the novel it was going to be exposed that Maya was in a sort of dream simulation throughout the entire …
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http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=32715251&blogID=168223177
… What if I were to tell you that indefinite life is is an obtainable realitly in our life time? Chances are you would respond as almost everyone else I have tried to tell. Your response would be a mixture of cynisism and ridicule. Unfortunatly this is the same reaction the men and women of the Methuselah Foundation face everyday. This reality is …
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A disclaimer: Please note that the blogs linked to here do not represent any official position or opinions of the Methuselah Foundation, and are presented here for your reading. The blogs we present represent only the opinions of their owners and commentators.

Generous Methuselah Foundation donors have been funding the modest first steps into scientific research for Aubrey de Grey’s Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) since late last year. This research effort will continue to expand with the Foundation and your support. We are pleased to announce that LysoSENS, the first branch of donor-funded SENS research, is now joined by MitoSENS:

Mutations to the mtDNA inevitably accumulate leading to dysfunction of mitochondria, and contributing to aging of the organism. The goal of MitoSENS is to obviate mtDNA mutations by expressing the mtDNA genes from the nucleus.

Fortunately, we would be completing a process that evolution has already started.

The mitochondrial genome originally had thousands of genes, but evolution has reduced it to a mere 13 (protein encoding) genes in humans. By studying how nature transfered expression of other genes from the mitochondria to the nucleus, we can identify the necessary steps to transfer the remaining 13 genes (in humans).

MitoSENS research is currently being conducted in the lab of Ian Holt at Cambridge University. To learn more about the MitoSENS strategy from its originator and Methuselah Foundation chairperson Aubrey de Grey, see the SENS website here (laymans terms) or here (technical).

Onwards and upwards! All great voyages start with such modest steps. There is much to be done in the fight to prevent degenerative aging by tackling the cellular damage that lies at its root – the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll finish.

Here is Michael Yamashita’s blog scan of interesting entries for this week:

http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1157744495.shtml
…I’ve been babbling about the Large Hadron Collider coming online next year to people who couldn’t care less for some time (I think ever since I first read about it in, iirc, The Elegant Universe). It really is a huge deal, as it could finally prove or disprove string/M theory, as well as answering some questions about dark matter and the fundamental basis of mass and how it arises in our universe.

And when the Singularity does get here, we’ll now be able to know (OK, arbitrarily specify) just exactly when it got here to 100 times the previous available accuracy.

Good news for those hoping to live long enough to see the Singularity: looks like Aubrey de Grey has a friend (link to a Yahoo news piece on stem cells)….

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http://posthumanblues.blogspot.com/2006/08/live-forever-speakers-debated.html
… Live forever Speakers debated questions including: “How will humans re-engineer the human body?” and “What is natural about us and does it matter?” One of the speakers, Dr Aubrey de Grey – a geneticist at Cambridge University and described as “perhaps the most optimistic” of the scientists who want to lengthen human life – believes that …If we can make it to 1000, we will have achieved immortality. We won’t have to worry about “illness”; we’ll worry about altogether bigger threats such as the lifetimes of stars, the hard radiation of supernovae, the gnarled topology of spacetime, and, ultimately, the fate of the universe itself…
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http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2006/09/why_the_slow_ac.html
… NanoEnthusiast wrote on our blog yesterday, “I can’t help but think that if all the radical ideas related to Drexlerian nanotechnology (i.e radical life-extension, nanofactories that can make anything) had not been talked about; then maybe the rather modest-sounding claim that one can build interesting nanostuctures out of diamond one atom (or …
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http://odograph.com/?p=681
… Interesting Aging Mechanism September 8th, 2006 This will present a dilemma to the life-extension folk: ANN ARBOR, Mich — The natural consequences of growing old include slower wound-healing and a brain that makes fewer new neurons because old tissues have less regenerative capacity. What has not been clear is why. A trio of papers published …
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http://nakedwisdom.blogspot.com/2006/09/aubrey-de-greys-interview-on-gmtvs-good.html
… This is an interview with gerentologist Aubrey de Grey on GMTV’s Good Morning…
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http://happycrow.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/old-age-or-cancer-take-your-pick/
… Old Age or Cancer, take your pick September 8, 2006 Posted by happycrow in Happycrow, The Scifi is NOW. add a comment It seems that the aging process now needs to be described a little differently. I’ve been waiting for a web link on this, having heard a teaser on the radio: FuturePundit’s on the ball. Why do we age? Why don’t our stem cells … Why do we age? Why don’t our stem cells continue to divide to produce cells needed to repair and maintain the body? Three research groups Harvard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at University of Michican have found very strong evidence that as cells age they make more of a protein that slows down cells in order to reduce the risk of cancer…
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http://pimm.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/wiki-possibilities-of-life-extension-science/
… Yesterday I organized a meeting where the speaker was the convincing Jimbo Wiki Wales, founder of Wikipedia. He told us about the overall wiki phenomena and his latest proposal the Campaigns Wikia website, which is about participatory [ jimbo]politics made by web users and wiki software. I had a concrete campaign offer in July to support life …
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http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14454223&blogID=162331026
… I notice a lack, an overwhelming lack actually, of people enthusiastic about keeping their bodies from deterioriating to the point where they die. Do people just not care about their lives that much? Is what is going on in your mind and your reactions to this enviroment youve been thrust into just really not all that big of a deal? Ide be …
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http://singularityvideos.blogspot.com/2006/09/aubrey-de-grey-interview-with-janet.html
… British (department of genetics at Cambridge University) scientist Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., is interviewed by Bloomberg news correspondent … Janet Street-Porter. A brief overview on how aging could be curable and extreme life extension could be available in as little as 25 years and the scientific debate surrounding such a proposition. …
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http://csworks.blogspot.com/2006/09/live-forever.html
… Aubrey de Grey thinks he knows how to defeat aging. He’s brilliant, but is he nuts? (link to TR
site)
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A disclaimer: Please note that the blogs linked to here do not represent any official position or opinions of the Methuselah Foundation, and are presented here for your reading. The blogs we present represent only the opinions of their owners and commentators.

Those folk new to the Methuselah Foundation community, healthy life extension or the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence might not realize that it is only very recently that scientists have felt able to talk seriously about tackling age-related degeneration. For the longest time it has been the case that discussing therapies for aging was the “instant death third rail of grantsmanship” as one researcher wittily put it. Funding in science is a very conservative process, taking place within a very conservative culture; aging research is no exception.

We at the Methuselah Foundation like to think that Foundation initiatives – powered by the generosity of our donors – have moved the boundaries of the discussion in the past few years. In this, we have helped to provide cover for scientists in the gerontology community to say openly what they have been willing to say in private all along – that science can defeat aging, and we should get started as soon as possible. The first step on any road is to be able to talk about the destination without risk of censure – it is a shame that is has taken so long and so much effort to get to this point.

On that note, the Longevity Dividend symposium in Washington DC – engineered by scientists and advocates S. Jay Olshansky, Daniel Perry, Richard A. Miller, and Robert N. Butler – is coming up on the 12th of this month. This is one of a number of initiatives that I cannot see having taken place even a few years ago.

The times they are a-changing, and for the better.