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SENS Foundation Launches
(Tuesday April 07 2009)
 | Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) research will be conducted by the SENS Foundation going forward. This initiative is spun off from the Methuselah Foundation, which will renew its focus on the Mprize for longevity science and a number of other less research-focused endeavors. From biomedical gerontologist and SENS Foundation co-founder Aubrey de Grey: "I want to give you a feel for what we are achieving by summarising just two of the many recent elements of SENS-related scientific progress. One shining example is the discovery of enzymes that can destroy A2E, a by-product of the chemistry of sight, which is thought to be the primary cause of age-related macular degeneration (in turn, a major cause of blindness in the elderly). ... The other example, this time relating to mitochondrial mutations, [is] the breakthrough by Marisol Corral-Debrinski's Methuselah-funded group in Paris in cracking the problem of hydrophobicity of the proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA. This obstacle, which had for over a decade completely stalled progress in the 20-year-old idea of making mitochondrial DNA redundant by duplicating it in the nucleus, is now largely solved, and there is great hope that this strand of SENS can be brought to complete fruition within only a few more years. I have no doubt that SENS Foundation is the right organization to take the next evolutionary steps in the engineering of comprehensive regenerative therapies. ... It promises to be a remarkable journey, and I look forward to your continued interest, support and collaboration as we increase our pace and set our sights ever closer to the horizon." |
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