Why it is time to found a Methuselah Institute

1
Why it is time to found a Methuselah
Institute Dr. Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey Department
of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK
2
Humanitarian context of the effort to cure aging
as soon as possible Many reasons are often given
why curing aging might have undesirable
consequences. One simple fact answers them
all Extending (healthy) lives saving
lives Failing to work to cure aging is no more
nor less than condemning 100,000 people every day
to an avoidable death on the basis of their age.
No possible downside of curing aging can justify
this.
3
Structure of talk timeliness of MI 1 summary of
how to cure aging with seven strands of
foreseeable biomedical technology 2 reasons why
we can be confident that those seven things are
all we need to do 3 timeframe for developing
those technologies in mice 4 reasons why mice
are the best place to start 5 reasons why this is
not being done and only a MI-type effort will
do it fast 6 reasons why very few of my
colleagues are saying all this (yet!)
4
How to cure aging, step 1 identify its weakest
link
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
How to cure aging, step 2 dissect that weakest
link
8
Q How can we be so confident that thats all
there is to fix? A 20 years is a very long time,
in science, to find nothing out
9
Timeframe for developing these technologies in
mice, with adequate funding 10 years
10

• Why mice?
• cheap (hence well-studied many versatile
  biotechnological tools available)
• short-lived (so life extension results can be
  obtained quickly)
• furry (so the public will take notice)
• Milestone Robust Mouse Rejuvenation (RMR) make
  normal two-year-old mice, expected to live one
  more year, actually live three more years

11

• Time till robust human rejuvenation?
• Short answer hard to say, because
• humans already live long, so improving us is
  harder
• safety. Society doesnt like treatments that
  cure 90 of us but kill the rest, whereas in
  mice thats progress
• However, the seven strands are just as
  comprehensive for human aging as for mouse aging.
  Thus
• if we had RMR today, RHR could be only 15 years
  away
• - if we translate pre-RMR work to humans at once,
  we can gain time. Most of the MI funding will go
  to this.

12
Q Why do we need MI for this? Why not just ramp
up public research spending? A The triangular
logjam
13
Biogerontologists
Peer review, short-termism
Media
Ballot box
Voters, shareholders
Government, industry
How can this logjam be broken???
14
Fact to remember scientists will do anything
interesting for food
Biogerontologists
Philanthropy and Vision
Peer review, short-termism
Media
Ballot box
Voters, shareholders
Government, industry
15
Q Why are so few gerontologists speaking out
like this? A careerism, dogmatism, ignorance Put
more charitably - the triangular logjam
(including protecting the future careers of
ones students) - the house problem (depth of the
paradigm shift that is involved) - experiments
(and grant-writing) leave no time to read any
research that ones existing mindset says is
outside ones field
16
Timeliness of the MI concept 1 summary of how to
cure aging with seven strands of foreseeable
biomedical technology 2 reasons why we can be
confident that those seven things are all we
need to do 3 timeframe for developing those
technologies in mice 4 reasons why mice are the
best place to start 5 reasons why this is not
being done and only a MI-type effort will do it
fast 6 reasons why very few of my colleagues are
saying all this (yet!)
17

• Summing up
• Given adequate, focused funding (MI), RMR is
  doable in a decade with 90 probability
• RHR timeframe unknowable, but could be only
  5-10 years after RMR if there is aggressive
  translation to humans of pre-RMR progress
• Maybe longer, but so what?

18
(No Transcript)
19
Lets roll