Methuselah Foundation Announces the Re-entry of Former Prize Winner Professor Andrzej Bartke, PhD, into the Mprize Competition

The Methuselah Foundation is pleased to announce that Professor Andrzej Bartke has again taken up the challenge to compete in the Mprize competition. Professor Bartke is Professor of Physiology and Internal Medicine, Director of Geriatric Medicine and Distinguished Scholar at Southern Illinois School of Medicine. The Mprize, a scientific research prize aimed at encouraging scientists to find a way to reverse the aging process, is a primary activity of the Methuselah Foundation. The Mprize fund continues to grow and currently stands at close to $4.5 Million. Prizes will be awarded to research groups that can most successfully extend the life span of laboratory mice.

"Few people not directly involved in gerontological research are fully aware of the exciting developments in the study of aging, and what I feel is the very real prospect of devising effective means of postponing age-related disease and functional decline and, yes, prolonging life."

- Professor Andrzej Bartke

Professor Bartke won the Longevity Mprize in 2004 when a Growth Hormone Receptor gene knockout mouse bred in his laboratory, from animals developed by Professor John Kopchick, reached a record age of nearly five years. Professor Bartke remains very active in anti-aging and age-related diseases medicine. He holds a confirmed belief and strong interest in continuing to use mice as proxies for humans to speed up aging research.

Since winning the Mprize for Longevity, Professor Bartke has continued his mouse aging research in several new directions including:

• the interactions of mouse longevity genes with caloric restriction
• the role of altered insulin signaling in mediating the effects of growth hormone on longevity
• the effects of hormonal therapy during development
• the characterization of novel mutants affecting GH-IGFI axis

Of particular note is Professor Bartke's research into the importance of insulin, Growth Hormone ("GH") and Caloric Restriction ("CR") on the aging processes. Work at his laboratory on the phenotypic characteristics of long-lived mouse mutants, enhanced sensitivity to insulin actions, combined with reduced insulin secretion and organ-specific alterations in the expression of genes related to IGFI and insulin signaling, as well as his collaborative studies on increased stress resistance are important scientifically, representing a bridge between the information obtained from lower organisms and the quest to understand the mechanisms of human aging.

Professor Bartke's beliefs in the value of mouse research can be summed up in his recent observation:

The mouse is unique for accelerating aging research because it provides a very workable mammalian system for the study of genetic, hormonal and nutritional influences on aging, age-related disease and longevity

The Methuselah Foundation is delighted that Professor Bartke has decided to re-enter the Mprize competition and wishes him and his team success in their ground-breaking research.

About the Methuselah Foundation

The Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to accelerating the development of foreseeable, science-based therapies to combat aging. Its main activities are the funding of SENS research, and the Methuselah Mouse Prize, which is being offered to the scientific research teams that significantly extend the lifespan of middle-aged laboratory mice. Further details of the Methuselah Foundation can be found at: www.methuselahfoundation.org

About Professor Andrzej Bartke

Professor Bartke is currently Professor of Physiology and Internal Medicine, Director of Geriatric Medicine & Distinguished Scholar at Southern Illinois School of Medicine. Professor Bartke earned his MSc in Biology at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland and his PhD in Zoology (Genetics) at the University of Kansas. He was Assistant Professor of Genetics at his Krakow alma mater, Post-doctoral Fellow and later Scientist and Senior Scientist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and Associate and then Professor at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. Since 1984, Professor Bartke has been Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology, Southern Illinois University, assuming his current position in 2002.

Professor Bartke has received numerous honors and awards from a broad array of prestigious scientific societies, conferences and publications. He has been an Officer and Director of some of these organizations and Editor of some of their scientific journals. His awards include an Honorary PhD from Lodz Medical University, Poland in 2007 and the coveted Denham Harman Lifetime Achievement in Research from the American Aging Association ("AGE") in 2005, an organization of which he was President during 2004-2005.

Professor Bartke's scientific contributions also include:

• Training and qualifying many PhD, MSc and Post- doctoral students
• Extensive publications: 507 papers, 113 review articles and book chapters, and 11 books.

His research work has been supported by agencies such as the NIH, The Ellison Medical Foundation and The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research.