Engineering negligible senescence:

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Engineering negligible senescence rational
design of feasible, comprehensive rejuvenation
biotechnology Aubrey de Grey Department of
Genetics, University of Cambridge Email
ag24_at_gen.cam.ac.uk Questions, reprint requests
etc always welcome
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• Why I am here
• To make a (big) difference
• 100,000 people die of age-related causes every
  day. Some of us think this is rather a pity
  (Russell, ca. 1955)
• Those working on this are not working as a team
• All the core knowledge needed to develop
  engineered negligible senescence (ENS) is already
  in our possession -- it mainly just needs to be
  pieced together. No one but me is doing this.
• Bottom line my goal is to bring forward the
  advent of ENS by 10 years, so saving 109 lives
  -- very possibly including you

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• Yes, you
• Defeating aging will cost 1b of undiluted
  philanthropy over the next decade (after that,
  the normal economy will take over)
• Most of the worlds potential philanthropic money
  is controlled by people presently in their 50s
  and 60s
• The finger in the air approach to timescales
  for defeating aging tells those people that they
  will probably need biostasis
• They are wrong their money now can make them
  LIKELY to see ENS developed in time for them
• My job is simply to persuade them Im right about
  that

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Definitions -- broader than you might
assume Metabolism the entire collection of
biochemical and cellular processes that keep us
alive from one day to the next (as opposed to
just oxygen consumption, as in metabolic
rate) Damage the entire collection of
compositional differences between n-year-olds and
(n10)-year-olds that give the latter a shorter
remaining life expectancy (as opposed to just
random damage such as oxidation) Aging (from an
interventionist perspective) Metabolism
Damage Pathology
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Three paradigms for intervention Gerontology
Engineering Geriatrics Metabolism
Damage
Pathology Claim only the engineering
approach can achieve substantial extension of
human healthspan any time soon
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Metabolism Damage Pathology
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Foreseeable technologies for reversal IABG 10
Cambridge, UK, Sept 19-23 2003
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Repairing damage current status de Grey et al,
Ann NY Acad Sci 959452 and BioEssays 24667
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Biogerontologists
Peer review, short-termism
Media
Ballot box
Voters, shareholders
Government, industry
How can this logjam be broken???
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Proposal an Institute of Biomedical
Gerontology Remit to promote, co-ordinate and
fund the focused development of solidly
science-based rejuvenation biotechnologies such
as those I have discussed. Motivation
100m/year of purely philanthropic funding would
have a 90 chance of making enough progress in
already long-lived mice (therapy starting at 75
of life expectancy giving 30 greater total
healthy life expectancy), within 10 years, to
change public attitudes and open the floodgates.
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Lets roll