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Andrzej Bartke, PhD is Co-chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Mprize and also an Mprize record holder for his work in mouse longevity. We at the Foundation are pleased to note his recent success in fundraising for aging research:
A world-renowned scientist at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine has received an $8.6 million federal grant - the largest in the institution's history - to continue and expand his study of the factors affecting aging and longevity.
The grant, announced Tuesday, designates Andrzej Bartke as the lead researcher for a team that includes scientists at Ohio University, the University of Michigan, Mayo Clinic and the University of Texas Health Science Center.
...
He said the team will focus on mutant strains of mice that live longer than normal mice and examine the ways in which the aging process is affected by fat cells, genes and insulin - a substance that helps the body process sugar.
Methuselah Foundation - Extending Healthy Human Life
LONG TERM STRATEGY
Organ Printing: It's Not Science Fiction Anymore
"In the future we'll be able to harness nature's ability to form organs and build our own."
Dr. Gabor Forgacs made that prediction. Now, he is making it a reality. Gabor is a University of Missouri researcher doing groundbreaking work in regenerative medicine. He is also the Scientific Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Organovo, the latest company to receive support from you, the donors of the Methuselah Foundation. As we work to identify breakthrough technology that will help us reach our shared goal of extending healthy human life, Organovo stands out. Thanks to your contributions we are able to assist them as they apply their proprietary technology to "print" new organs.
Read more about Gabor and Organovo and watch a video that explains the technology behind his remarkable achievements
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NEAR TERM STRATEGY
New Site Feature: Tips4Life
Many of you have asked: what can we do now to extend life? Through My Bridge 4 Life™, Methuselah Foundation fills that immediate need. My Bridge 4 Life is an online and offline community tool that takes the overwhelming nature of a major health crisis; divides it into manageable phases; sets goals for each phase with each user and their community; AND builds a wellness plan for life in the process.
In an early development stage, the first application Tips 4 Life is a global database of real-world wisdom. Take a few minutes today to post your experiences and insights and ask friends and family to share their tips related to a life-threatening health challenge they have faced.
Learn about My Bridge 4 Life at Mfoundation.org
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MID TERM STRATEGY
Harvard Scientist Explores: Longevity, Red Wine & Calorie Restriction
Fifteen years ago David Sinclair moved half way around the world to pursue his interest in longevity. David didn't want to take the usual route, looking for the genes that ended life, he wanted to figure out how to extend it.
Today he strives to devise ways to prevent and treat major diseases by manipulating genes that control how fast we age. David has been a frontrunner in the dramatic shift in research related to the aging process. Ignoring the conventional wisdom that the aging process was too complex to find drugs that could slow it, he works to uncover single genes that could dramatically extend the lifespan of laboratory organisms such as yeast, worms, flies and mice.
This transformation has left us with the fact that the rate of aging is not predetermined - it is naturally regulated by a few critical genes. These genes underlie the remarkable effects of the diet known as calorie restriction (CR), which delays aging in nearly every species tested, from yeast to primates. According to Dr. Sinclair, CR is currently the only treatment that is proven to prevent all diseases of aging including cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and neurodegeneration.
In his own words: "Recent studies in our lab and others...
Read more about David's Research
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MFoundation News Coverage
KTLA in Los Angeles did a story on The Methuselah Foundation, interviewing our Chief Marketing Officer Roger Holzberg and covering the 3-part strategy and Organovo (read more on Organovo in this newsletter). Take a look.
A recent press release covered the 3-part strategy and another about our support of Organovo was released out this week. All press releases are now posted on the site.
Featured Testimonial
"How many lives will the Methuselah Foundation save? How about at least 66 million? Here's how I estimate that. Current world population of 6.6B. Conservatively assume 1% die each year from aging related causes, so that's 66 million aging driven deaths per year. Accelerate the date by which aging ceases to be a routine cause of death by just a single year, and 66 million lives will have been saved. We think such a one year acceleration is a modest goal for the Foundation. If it stimulates a 10 year acceleration, that would mean 660 million lives saved! We want to help the Foundation do that, and to be there to enjoy the results."
The Shapard Family
Thomas Shapard, Joanne Shapard, and Catherine Phillips
Read More Testimonials
Foundation Profile: David Sinclair
David A. Sinclair, Ph.D. is the Co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Molecular Biology of Aging, an Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Associate Member of the Broad Institute for Systems Biology, co-founder of Sirtris Pharma-ceuticals and a competitor for the MPrize. A native of St. Ives Australia, in 1995 he joined Leonard P. Guarente (another MPrize competitor) at MIT to pursue his interest in longevity and aging. He has been at Harvard since 1999.
Read More About David and His Work
Join The 300
Last call! This special group of donors has responded to the challenge to contribute $1000 a year for 25 years. Fill one of the few remaining slots and your donation will go to work immediately funding innovative technology that will change science forever. As a 300 member you'll get advance notice of news and events, have the opportunity to participate in exclusive webinars, receive a monthly email from Dave Gobel and have the satisfaction of knowing your gift will result in extended healthy life for yourself, your family and all humanity.
More news on The 300 monument coming soon - join now and have your name and message included.
Members of The 300 contribute greatly to Methuselah Foundation's initiatives, and share a commitment to significant change in the approach taken to healthcare and aging. As the Foundation has grown, our staff have indentified some promising technologies being developed now in addition to our continuing support of the work of Dr. Aubrey De Grey and the SENS Foundation. Today our CEO, Dave Gobel, invites members of The 300 to explore one of the recent additions to the Foundation stable of long term initiatives:
I am particularly excited about our support of Organovo and I thought you would be too. This company is a pioneer and leader in the exciting field of organ printing: developing technologies adapted from the printing industry to build new tissue that looks like and works as well as organs produced by natural means.
Rather than attempt to explain their work to you I have asked Keith Murphy, Chief Executive Officer at Organovo, to tell you about their research and their latest innovations in a private webinar for members of The 300 I'm sure you will want to join in and hear what they have to say, it is a fascinating field of research and development.
We now have 247 members of The 300, and anticipate reaching our full membership this summer. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might want to join us in our efforts to combat aging.
Methuselah Foundation supporter Darren Reynolds recently asked our CEO Dave Gobel about the new My Bridge 4 Life initative:
Hi David,
I've been funding the Methuselah Foundation with small donations for a year or two now, so thought I'd come back to check what's been happening.
My Bridge 4 Life appears to be happening, and as far as I can tell, the project isn't compatible with MF's goals. We're all suffering with a life-threatening condition - ageing. If you were ever going to produce a database of tips, it ought to be one that says, "eat fruit and vegetables", "walk to the shops", etc. A study of causes of death by age, along with strategies for avoidance of each cause might have been helpful. It seems to me that MB4L runs counter to the principle that it is ageing we're fighting, not individual diseases.
Perhaps you have the time to help me understand how MB4L fits in?
Thanks
Darren
Here is Dave Gobel's explanation:
Hi Darren - Thanks so much for taking the time to ask!
The reason for MB4L is that we are working to reduce the "aha! gap" or conceptual hurdle for the billions of folks for whom a leap straight to the idea of extending healthy life is too vast and daunting a gap. Thus the "bridge" in "My Bridge 4 Life" is both a bridge for life today and a hoped for VERY long and healthy tomorrow.
For those suffering from life threatening diseases, it IS within the mission to help save lives today. But as you'll agree, this must be done in ways that ADD strength to the long term mission - rather than distracting therefrom - all while providing good and mission-relevant services in the process. This is why your question is so relevant, and something I constantly ask myself.
While cancer is the initial focus of MB4L, please think of it (as it truly is) as a platform technology. For instance, as the MB4L platform moves to beta, Methuselah Foundation has planned to do exactly what you suggest - that is, to create a MB4L community devoted to tips and community that identifies and encourages all to engage in the sorts of sensible life behaviours that directly extend healthy human life.
So, the logic goes like this: Most people are too busy, unwilling, or unable to anticipate the future in sufficient detail to take preemtive action on the decay brought about via aging. Thus, 99.9% of folks are too engaged in the business of life in the moment to take mortality seriously. It's only when they discover they or a loved one already have a life threatening condition that it comes sufficiently home to them that all distractions MUST be set aside, and that something MUST be done right NOW...and naturally, they focus on the clear and present threat/disease, rather than the root of most diseases - aging itself.
What to do about all too human pattern of behavior?
The Foundation is engaged in the art of the possible. Thus, we started with a mid term strategy - the Mprize and similar populist approaches to excite and incent the science while generating positive publicity. The first funding gambit of the Foundation was to engage the power of The 300: people visionary and committed enough to fund the effort sufficiently well to allow the next steps that must engage millions rather than hundreds.
After having gained very significant traction, we next turned to the very long term strategy to engineer negligible senescence (SENS) and similar strategies such as Organovo 3d autologous tissue printing technology of which MF is the founding investor on behalf of its donors.
These efforts have provided the mission with a growing constituency and funding sources all while legitimately pursuing the goal.
The new effort - focused on the short term and exemplified by MB4L - is designed to gain the positive attention of the 99.9% of the population who have been too busy to pay attention to the real underlying problems, but to whom life has handed a very sad but compelling imperative - i.e. "I (or my loved one) has Cancer (or some other life-threatening condition)!" The goal of MB4L is to provide serious, valid and relevant medical information, family and community support, education and hopefully lifesaving insights to such people at very low cost. At the same time while adding supporters and generating donations in behalf of the foundation and its longer-term mission.
During their involvement with MB4L it will become clear to MB4L's participants that the real enemy to defeat is the insidious underlying process that made them or their loved ones vulnerable to the disease that eventually attacked them. In a sense, MB4L is a real bridge that saves lives both in the present AND in the future. It is a bridge that brings people to understand the larger goals at a time when they are willing and able to listen.
Methuselah Foundation has always been designed to be anti-elitist and have a single goal - extend healthy human life by defeating and preventing the diseases and decay of aging. In order to succeed there is simply no doubt that we must engage and secure the active enthusiasm of millions of people for whom a direct attack on aging is MUCH too large a mental leap at this time. We must engage them in productive ways that accelerate the mission while also finding ways to vastly increase the support from those billions for whom a direct attack on aging is too large a leap today...in short, a bridge for life.
MB4L will produce a beneficial influence in the non-profit world of patient advocacy of age-related disease, presently a Babel-like hodgepodge of attacking the end state of this disease or the final symptoms of that disease rather than the real root underlying root cause of it all: aging.
MB4L is one way by which MF will legitimately appeal to and provide services to such sufferers, their friends and their families when they need it most - in the hope, belief and plan that once they are served by Methuselah Foundation, they will come to appreciate the overarching, uniting elements of the mission to defeat aging. They will then add to our currently powerful yet small numbers their grateful voices and treasure ... in their millions.
Gratefully,
Dave Gobel
CEO
Methuselah Foundation
From the desk of our CEO Dave Gobel:
Dear Friends,
We are delighted to report that Methuselah Foundation's expanded strategic focus is getting solid traction! KTLA, the largest broadcast outlet in Los Angeles did a serious piece on Methuselah Foundation featuring the Mprize, MyBridge4Life and Organovo, the 3D tissue printing initiative. Please send your friends the link so they can see the great work your support is making possible.
Cheers,
Dave Gobel
Methuselah Foundation
Video: http://www.ktla.com/news/extras/ktla-live-forever-video,0,5314454.worldnowvideo
Article: http://www.ktla.com/news/extras/ktla-live-forever,0,6577906.story
From the desk of the Methuselah Foundation CEO, Dave Gobel:
Today I am extremely pleased to announce exciting developments in the delivery of our global mission. As you might be aware, Methuselah Foundation's activities have always covered the twin threads of the Mprize and SENS research initiatives.
As of April 7th, 2009, the programs and resources of Methuselah Foundation's SENS research arm will be divested to the independent charity, SENS Foundation. SENS Foundation will be directed by CEO Mike Kope, with Dr. Aubrey de Grey as Chief Science Officer. I will continue to have the privilege of leading Methuselah Foundation.
The restructuring of Methuselah Foundation allows us to be more nimble as we grow, and enables us to incubate and launch a variety of programs. I'm writing you today to share with you our short, medium and long-term strategies that advance our core mission of ending age-related diseases through awareness, education, scientific research, and direct community outreach.
Let me tell you more about our expanded and new strategies for short, medium, and long-term impact in our mission to end age-related diseases:
SHORT-TERM STRATEGIES
I'd like to introduce you to My Bridge 4 Life, an exciting new initiative co-sponsored by Methuselah Foundation. My Bridge 4 Life is an online and offline community tool that takes the overwhelming nature of a major health crisis; carves it into manageable phases; sets goals for each phase with the user/patient and their community - and builds a wellness plan for life in the process.
As you know, it is has been a challenge to communicate our message to the mainstream public. It is our belief that providing instant real world updates to those with life threatening diseases, and their support networks, will introduce a significantly larger audience to our overall mission while providing a beneficial program for people in need.
Today we are launching Phase 1 of the project, My Bridge 4 Life's Tips4Life on World Health Day. Tips4Life is a global database of real world wisdom. If you, or anyone you know, have overcome a life threatening challenge please take a few brief moments and share your wisdom with the people who will be following in your footsteps at www.MyBridge4Life.com
MEDIUM-TERM STRATEGIES
The core focus in our fight to end age related diseases is found in the MPrize, a breakthrough approach to giving cutting-edge science the resources needed to solve one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time. The MPrize springs from a simple truth: the greatest innovations in human history have always been fueled by three things... competition, imagination and the entrepreneurial spirit. Science is no different.
To focus both the resources and vision of the world's most capable and passionate scientific teams, the MPrize rewards the vision and dedication of teams that discover new keys to extending healthy human life with sizable cash prizes. We've already seen promising results. In the coming months we will be adding new social media elements, outreach and community programs to the MPrize.
LONG-TERM STRATEGIES
We remain firmly committed to continuing support for groundbreaking rejuvenative research, taking further strides in our global mission to develop, promote, and provide widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions and therapies to end the disabilities and diseases of aging. We have many exciting new breakthrough rejuvenation projects in the works, which we will be announcing in the very near future. Stay tuned...
YOUR ROLE
I would like to take this time to thank you for making our growth and expansion possible. Methuselah Foundation and SENS Foundation are developing and sharing cures and programs that will help end the suffering of aging. It is a testament to the power of community that your donations, no matter how small, make a direct impact on finding the solution for a longer, healthier life for each and every one of us. You are changing human history for generations to come.
And again, if you, or anyone you know, have overcome a life threatening challenge please take a few brief moments and share your wisdom with the people who will be following in your footsteps at My Bridge For Life's website.
Thank you again for your support!
Sincerely,
Dave Gobel
Founder and CEO, Methuselah Foundation
From the Methuselah Foundation founders:
Today we are extremely pleased to announce exciting developments in the delivery of our global mission.
As many of you are aware, Methuselah Foundation's activities have always covered the twin threads of the Mprize and SENS research initiatives. As of 7th April, 2009, the programs and resources of Methuselah Foundation's SENS research arm will be divested to the independent charity, SENS Foundation. SENS Foundation will be directed by CEO Mike Kope, with Dr Aubrey de Grey as Chief Science Officer. Methuselah Foundation will continue to be led by Founder and CEO David Gobel.
"The restructuring of Methuselah Foundation allows us to be more nimble as we grow, and enables us to incubate and launch a variety of programs. On April 7th we will unveil short, medium and long-term strategies that advance our core mission of ending age-related disease through awareness, education, scientific research, and direct community outreach," says Methuselah Foundation CEO Dave Gobel.
Dr de Grey will be standing down from his formal roles with Methuselah Foundation on 6th April in order to focus his effort on SENS research and outreach. In his own words: "I have been delighted with the extraordinary growth and significant breakthroughs which the SENS research initiative has already delivered. As CSO of SENS Foundation I look forward to continuing and extending this work, taking further strides in a global mission to develop, promote, and provide widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging."
SENS Foundation is in the final stages of acquiring the necessary 501(c)(3) status and infrastructure to process general tax-deductible donations directly. In the interim, Methuselah Foundation will be assisting SENS Foundation in processing donations in order that they retain tax-exempt status for US taxpayers. An initial sponsorship agreement between the two organizations will ensure that existing SENS research funds are also made available to SENS Foundation.
Both organizations have a web presence to provide further information about their work and structure. Methuselah Foundation remains at MFoundation.org . SENS Foundation can be found at SENS.org.
We would also like to take this time to thank you for making our growth and expansion possible. Methuselah Foundation and SENS Foundation are developing and sharing cures and programs that will help end the suffering of aging. It is a testament to the power of community that your donations, no matter how small, make a direct impact on finding the solution for a longer, healthier life for each and every one of us. You are changing human history for generations to come.
With sincere thanks,
Dave Gobel, Mike Kope, and Aubrey de Grey
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