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The Methuselah Foundation and the Mprize.

Updated on 10th March 2008 by Alistair Tweed.

We live in extremely exciting times.

Anti-aging science, medicine and technology are really beginning to take off and more financial and mental resources are being focussed on challenging the aging process than ever before.

However, science is currently funded in an extremely conservative way and this is preventing anti-aging science advancing as quickly as it could. For those of us alive today, the rate of progress may not be as quick as it needs to be to for us to realise the many benefits promised by advances in these new technologies.

However, there is an organisation called "The Methuselah Foundation" that is both challenging the lack of commitment to these goals on the part of the funding establishment and providing a more focussed, visionary and ambitious approach to research. They are doing this in two ways:

Firstly, through the implementation of the Methuselah Mouse Prize (Mprize).
Secondly, by developing Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).

The Mprize.

From the Mprize website:

"The Methuselah Mouse Prize (Mprize), is the premiere effort of the The Methuselah Foundation and is being offered to the scientific research team who develops the longest living Mus musculus, the breed of mouse most commonly used in scientific research. Developing interventions which work in mice is a critical precursor to the development of human anti-aging techniques, for once it is demonstrated that aging in mice can be effectively delayed or reversed, popular attitudes towards aging as 'inevitable' will no longer be possible. When aging in mice is shown to be 'treatable', the funding necessary for a full-line assault on the aging process will be made available. This is the true power of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, to demonstrate a proof of principle, and give hope to the world that decline in function and age-related disease are no longer guarantees, for us, or for future generations, if we work together now."

In short, the The Methuselah Foundation has proposed an innovative way of circumventing the established funding process and has developed a way of working with anti-aging scientists that frees them from these constraints. This proposal has been extremely well received by the scientific community. It is now up to us to provide the Mprize with enough funds to really make it worth while for the scientists to pursue.

Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS)

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a visionary, independent researcher working in Cambridge, UK. He believes that anti-aging technology could come about in a future that many of us alive now might live to see. Dr. de Grey has defined the causes of aging precisely. These are:

Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) concept picture

Cell loss.
Apoptosis-resistance (the tendency of cells to refuse to die when they are supposed to).
Gene mutations in the cell nucleus.
Gene mutations in the mitochondria (the cellular power houses).
The accumulation of junk inside cells.
The accumulation of junk outside cells.
The accumulation of inappropriate chemical links in the material that supports cells.

To counteract these deleterious phenomena, he has devised his Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS). Basically, he is taking the approach that each of these problems is solvable and has come up with a series of propositions for doing so. You can read more about these strategies in Aubrey de Grey's book - "ENDING AGING". These proposals are far sighted and, in most cases, are beyond the scope of what the established scientific funding system is currently likely to fund. Due to the scientific establishment's reluctance to fund measures that are directly aimed at combating aging, these highly targetted and visionary efforts again need funding from the people who are most likely to benefit from this research.

That would be us.

Yes, you and I.

Funding the Methuselah Foundation

My own feeling is that for some of us, there is a chance that the money you place here may be of greater benefit to you than the money you place in your pension. I am not suggesting that you should divert all your pension funds here. However, isn't it worth comparing what kind of return you could get from a breakthrough in anti-aging techniques and consequent age management procedures compared to the returns from a pension system that is already under pressure and under delivering?

I would encourage you all to do as much as you can to promote the The Methuselah Foundation and the Mprize. Many of the finest minds in anti-aging science feel that this is the best opportunity currently available for all of us to be able to contribute to and benefit from advances in anti-aging science.

If you are a UK tax payer, please read our guide to Tax Efficient Giving to The Methuselah Foundation and the Mprize to learn how to take advantage of the tax efficient method of donating to The Methuselah Foundation.

Otherwise, you can make a donation at the The Methuselah Foundation Donation Page now.

The contents of this page have been agreed and approved by the Methuselah Foundation.