Aubrey de Grey and his work at extending healthy life

Two talks by scientist Aubrey de Grey and his work at extending healthy life in humans to to a thousand years. My notes on his speeches, some of his slides and more information about Mr. de Grey.



Paul's notes Jan. 5 2008-

Key concept
1. metabolism ongoingly cases damage. Damage only eventually causes pathology. Pathology leads to death.

2. As humans we can try to prevent `damages' before they happen (prevention) and we can treat damages after we happen (medicinal intervention.)

3. Without the outrageous claims that a human can live to a thousand, de Gray's proposition that we should prevent pathologies that bring misery (and eventual death) is much less controversial.

4. In work on HIV, doctors first tried to help those afflicted cope. Then immediately they looked for cause (unsafe sex, transmission of contaminated blood, and re-use of contaminated needles- and began working to educate the populace to fight against the `pathology'.) Then as doctors witnessed how the HIV typically worked in breaking down the contaminated- they began working on ways to stop in advance the predictable pathologies, resulting with HIV sufferers living longer, healthier lives.

de Gray basically is doing the same thing withe issue of aging.

5. He gives a great car analogy, showing a jeep that has lasted well for fifty years because it was built like a tank. Then a VW bug that has lasted more than years because the owners liked it so much they kept it up, fixing whatever was wrong with it, and then he showed a vehicle in mint condition over 15o years old- also in excellent working order because the owners kept it up.

Its been said by others: People take better care of their cars (horses and dogs) then they do of themselves.


7. Slides





Definition of terms:

1. Pathology = pathology
"science of diseases," 1611, from Fr. pathologie, from Mod.L. pathologia, from Gk. pathologikos "treating of disease," from pathos "suffering" (see pathos) + -logia "study," from logos "word." Pathologist first recorded 1650. Pathological "pertaining to disease" formed in Eng. 1688;
a. the science or the study of the origin, nature, and course of diseases.
b. the conditions and processes of a disease.
c. any deviation from a healthy, normal, or efficient condition.

2. metabolism L
in physiology sense, 1878, from Fr. métabolisme, from Gk. metabole "change," from metaballein "to change," from meta- "over" + ballein "to throw." Metabolic is first attested 1845 in this sense, from Ger. metabolisch (1839). The word is attested from 1743 with the lit. sense of "involving change."
anabolic Look up anabolic at Dictionary.com
"pertaining to the process of building up (especially in metabolism)," 1876, from Gk. anabole "that which is thrown up, mound," from ana "up, upward" + ballein "to throw."


3. Gerontology gerontology
1903, coined in Eng. from Gk. geron (gen. gerontos) "old man," from PIE base *ger(e)- "to become ripe, grow old" (cf. Skt. jara "old age," Avestan zaurvan "old age," Ossetic zarond "old man"). the branch of science that deals with aging and the problems of aged persons.

4. geriatric
1909, formed in Eng. from Gk. geras "old age" (from PIE base *gere- "to grow old;" cf. Skt. jarati "makes frail, causes to age") + iatrikos "of a physician," from iatros, related to iasthai "heal, treat," of uncertain origin. Geriatrics was coined 1909 by Ignatz L. Nascher (1863-1944) in "New York Medical Journal" on the model of pediatrics. The correct formation would be gerontiatrics.
–adjective
a. of or pertaining to geriatrics, old age, or aged persons.
–noun
b. Slang. an old person.




Why you should listen to him:

A true maverick, Aubrey de Grey challenges the most basic assumption underlying the human condition -- that aging is inevitable. He argues instead that aging is a disease -- one that can be cured if it's approached as "an engineering problem." His plan calls for identifying all the components that cause human tissue to age, and designing remedies for each of them — forestalling disease and eventually pushing back death. He calls the approach Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS).

With his astonishingly long beard, wiry frame and penchant for bold and cutting proclamations, de Grey is a magnet for controversy. A computer scientist, self-taught biogerontologist and researcher, he has co-authored journal articles with some of the most respected scientists in the field.

But the scientific community doesn't know what to make of him. In July 2005, the MIT Technology Review challenged scientists to disprove de Grey's claims, offering a $20,000 prize (half the prize money was put up by de Grey's Methuselah Foundation) to any molecular biologist who could demonstrate that "SENS is so wrong that it is unworthy of learned debate." The challenge remains open; the judging panel includes TEDsters Craig Venter and Nathan Myhrvold. It seems that "SENS exists in a middle ground of yet-to-be-tested ideas that some people may find intriguing but which others are free to doubt," MIT's judges wrote. And while they "don't compel the assent of many knowledgeable scientists," they're also "not demonstrably wrong."

"Aubrey de Grey is a man of ideas, and he has set himself toward the goal of transforming the basis of what it means to be human."

MIT Technology Review

efeating aging: Aubrey de Grey's handbook – July 9, 2007

British biogerontologist, computer scientist and twice TED speaker Aubrey de Grey has just finished a book, "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime", where he details his controversial claim that "we could defeat aging".

Degreyendingagingcover Cheat sheet: Aubrey went on stage at TEDGLOBAL05 (video) and then at TED06 saying (I'm oversimplifying) that aging, like a disease, can be cured; that it is essentially a set of accumulating molecular and cellular transformations in our bodies, caused by metabolism, that eventually lead to pathology and kill us. Therefore, it could be approached "as an engineering problem": identify all the components of the variety of processes that cause tissues to age, and design remedies for each of them. He calls the approach "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" (SENS).

The book, co-written with his assistant Michael Rae, will be released September 4 by St Martin's Press. We e-mailed with Aubrey last week.

Aubrey, are you feeling older than last year?

Not really -- and that's despite the fact that my schedule has become even more punishing. I think the fulfilment I derive from spearheading the push to save so many lives somehow gives me the vitality to cope.

How has your research progressed since your TEDGLOBAL05 and TED06 speeches?

The Methuselah Foundation has gone from strength to strength. The biggest development, among other donations, was the pledge of $3.5m from TEDster and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, which resulted from a dialogue that began at TED. Most of his pledge ($3m of it) is a 1:2 challenge, so our current goal is to obtain $6m from elsewhere to match that pledge in full.

OK, that's about the funding. But how's the research going?

It's been going really well too. We are currently sponsoring research by three teams (in Phoenix, Houston and Cambridge UK) on two of the most important SENS strands -- LysoSENS, the identification and exploitation of microbial enzymes to break down molecules that we cannot naturally degrade, and MitoSENS, the incorporation of modified copies of the mitochondrial DNA into the chromosomal DNA so that mitochondrial mutations will have no effect. Both these projects are going really well, results coming out of the LysoSENS project have already been presented at two meetings and a paper has been submitted for publication in a prominent journal.

What should readers expect to learn from the book?

They will learn all about the detailed science of SENS. The book is written (largely by my splendid research assistant Michael Rae) very much for a non-scientist audience, but without dumbing down the science at all.