Check out the full article here.

For the first time in history, the aged will outnumber the young. Battling with age-related diseases and cost of treatment, global economic disaster looms in the future for all of us if aggressive action isn’t taken now. International investment in aging research will give us the chance to slow or actually reverse the degenerative process of aging to extend healthy, happy lifespan for coming generations.

Download the paper here.

Join us for two days of practical, realistic exploration of what each of us can do to slow individual aging and live the longest, healthiest, most active life possible.
-Christine Peterson

We are proud to announce a Personalized Life Extension Conference to be held on October 9-10, 2010 in San Francisco, bringing together expert speakers, implementor speakers, and participants to discuss how to take personal action against the diseases of aging.

Topics to be covered include:

• Supplements • DNA Testing • Telomere Protection • Blood Testing • Finding a Life Extension Doctor • Gadgets

• Inflammation • Calorie Restriction & Intermittent Fasting • Sleep • Stress reduction • Self-experimentation

• Exercise • Enhancement & Brain Function • Eating • Standards of Information Quality • Mood

Methuselah Foundation discount code for $100 off: METHUSELAH

More information can be found at http://lifeextensionconference.com.

Alan Cash
Alan Cash learned about aging the hard way. Although he hadn’t turned 50 yet he experienced a rare and extremely painful side effect of aging. At the time Alan wasn’t aware that our veins and arteries lengthen as we age until an artery pushed into a major nerve bundle and caused excruciating pain in his neck. “I’ve often been accused of being a pain in the neck,” quips Alan, “I guess this was just payback.” A six-hour brain surgery separated the nerve from artery with the help of a Teflon pad.

Although the pain was completely gone, the experience left Alan with “the intense feeling that Aging was bad.” So he decided to do something about it. A lengthy recuperation gave him the opportunity to read about aging. He became fascinated by the work involving Calorie Restriction (CR) by such notable researchers as Leonard Guarente and David Sinclair, because CR was a proven method to slow aging.

He learned that CR leads to changes in metabolism and gene expression that result in increased lifespan and the reduction of the incidence of heart disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease, type-2 diabetes and cancer. Alan realized that three molecular pathways that extend life as a result of CR had been identified:

1. Increasing the NAD+/NADH ratio in the cells,
2. Chronically activating AMPK and
3. Increasing the NAD+ levels in the mitochondria.

All of these could be achieved by supplementing the diet with the metabolite oxaloacetate. Oxaloacetate is a human metabolite, and is consumed in the foods we eat on a daily basis, such as apples, chicken, and potatoes, but these foods do not contain enough oxaloacetate to continually activate AMPK, the AMP-activated protein kinase that regulates metabolism.

Working with scientists at UCSD and UCLA schools of medicine, Alan showed that animals given supplements of oxaloacetate have increased lifespan, just like animals under CR. And equally important, others have already shown that oxaloacetate provides many of the same health benefits as CR, including mitochondrial DNA protection, and protection of retinal, neural and pancreatic tissues. Human studies indicate a substantial reduction in fasting glucose levels and improvement in insulin resistance.

With his training as a physicist, Alan strove to take the complex biology of aging and reduce it to a simple idea to slow aging and extend life--- mainly to supplement the diet with higher amounts of oxaloacetate. When Alan presented his ideas to a molecular biologist at University of California San Diego, the biologist immediately cleared space and invited him to test his theory! Together they did tests on worms, flies and mice, and the initial data was very promising, leading to journal articles in “Aging Cell”, “Open Longevity Science” and “Anti-Aging Therapeutics.” A simple solution for aging with a human metabolite had extended lifespan!

To publicize the discovery, Alan saw that the Mprize might be the best route, but additional data was required. Various long-term tests of oxaloacetate are underway at UC Riverside, LSU Baton Rouge, and, through the National Institute on Aging Interventions Testing Program, at UT Austin, UM Ann Arbor and the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Concurrently, after submitting extensive safety information, Alan received approval to market the new dietary supplement in Canada, Europe and the USA for human use, under the trade name “benaGene”.

Holly Brown Borg
Holly’s acquaintance with Ames dwarf mice led her to aging research. While she was in a postdoctoral position she began working with these small but long-lived mice to do studies on immunology. At that time she was working with Andrzej Bartke, he holds the Mprize for Longevity for a mouse that lived almost 5 years, double the normal lifespan.

After heading to North Dakota, where she became an Assistant Professor in Pharmacology, Physiology & Therapeutics, Holly continued to follow the progress of the mice. Their long life intrigued her. What was it that caused them to live so much longer than other mice?

Holly began exploring so she could understand what it was about these mice, lacking growth hormone, which allowed them to live so long. She explains her hypothesis, “A lack of growth hormone means there is no demand to make protein and turn amino acid into muscle; this frees the mice, metabolically, to fight off internal and external stresses.”

The human nutrition center on campus suggested that Holly turn her attention to methionine metabolism. This essential amino acid is critical for protein synthesis and growth, and is also integral to metabolism. To go a bit deeper, glutathione, an important antioxidant, is generated by the methionine (MET) pathway. Glutathione is made up of three amino acids, the key one in these studies is cysteine. The essential amino acids, MET and cysteine, can be easily modified in the diet.

The Ames mice have highly active methionine metabolism but when they are given growth hormone, this activity goes down. This was the proof Holly needed that methionine metabolism is regulated by growth hormone.
Calorie restriction (CR) is well known to extend lifespan in multiple species. It has also been shown that restricting MET intake (without CR) extends the lifespan of rats and mice. There are similarities in mice subjected to CR and the dwarf mice which suggests there are common underlying factors that lead to slower aging.

According to Holly, “The mechanisms leading to this potential ‘slower’ aging and lifespan extension are unknown. Our lab is interested in pursuing studies altering the level of essential amino acids in the diet and following modifications to key metabolic pathways involved in aging processes and lifespan. The beauty of these studies lies in their simplicity and potential therapeutic value.”

We believe it’s time for dramatic change. You already know Methuselah doesn’t accept the idea that “everyone falls apart.” (I have a harder time accepting that each year as I get closer to senior status.) Our vision is a long, healthy life for you, me and everyone on the waiting list for an organ.

This year we are focusing our efforts on tissue engineering and organ replacement. We are looking ahead 10 years and projecting that, with our help, everyone who needs an organ will get an organ. To realize our vision we are advocating nothing short of a whole new system. We call it Organomics. It is the science of organ regeneration combined with the economic means to make it possible.

The promise of Organomics is to provide a new organ to any patient in need, not from a donor or from the black market but from their own cells. NewOrgan Prize was created to reach this ambitious goal.

Methuselah Foundation has been working for years to find causes and solutions of deteriorating health and productivity. I’m glad to be part of an organization that drives science to find solutions that will work for all of us.

I challenge you to be Organomical!
Now that you know the science of NewOrganomics, be part of the economics that make it happen. Join a community of supporters and fundraisers who make the NewOrgan Prize possible and help us invest in the science of tissue and organ regeneration. Please join me in making a contribution today.

Technology developed in the Bay Area could soon have a dramatic impact on kidney transplants. It is designed to help patients who need a matching donor and a new version may be able to pair up thousands of patients in a fraction of the time.

Maggie Ervin recently started a chain reaction. After listening to a documentary on organ donation, she decided to donate one of her two kidneys to a stranger, as an altruistic donor.

Rather than helping just one person, Maggie's kidney was the first of a chain donation at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Over the course of the day, surgeons removed and transplanted kidneys among half a dozen people.

"It's exciting. A lot of people are getting transplanted that otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to get a transplant," said.

They are known as unmatched donors. Maggie's kidney went to Fernando Rico whose friend Guadalupe Ramirez was not compatible. Instead, Guadalupe donated her kidney in Fernando's name to a different recipient, whose sister then donated to another stranger.

Identifying and arranging these donation chains in time and space - a very challenging problem - is the benefit provided by Silverstone's work.

"Right now we’re really good at printing blood vessels," says Ben Shepherd, senior research scientist at regenerative-medicine company Organovo. "We printed 10 this week. We’re still learning how to best condition them to be good, strong blood vessels."

Most organs in the body are filled with veins, so the ability to print vascular tissue is a critical building block for complete organs. The printed veins are about to start testing in animal trials, and eventually go through human clinical trials. If all goes well, in a few years you may be able to replace a vein that has deteriorated (due to frequent injections of chemo treatment, for example) with custom-printed tissue grown from your own cells.

The photos are good, but the article mistakenly suggests that hundreds of millions of dollars will be needed to develop the organ printing system. In fact, Organovo's devices are already on sale to research groups - the large expenditures of the future will be spread amongst researchers who are working on moving from printing blood vessels to printing entire complex human organs.

Today Methuselah Foundation launched the NewOrgan Prize, the Foundation's new longevity prize specifically focused on advancing the development of replacement tissues and organs for humans. Its goal is to accelerate advances in regenerative medicine, which will become the standard of care for replacing all tissue and organ systems in the body within 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.*

The first research team to construct a whole new complex organ (heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas) made from a person's own cells - one that is functionally equivalent and successfully transplanted - will be awarded the NewOrgan Prize. The goal of the Methuselah Foundation NewOrgan Prize is to achieve this medical breakthrough within the next 10 years. Today's launch is a call to action for competitors, candidates and contributors who want to participate in this crucial medical challenge aimed at extending healthy human life.

"Based on our success in spurring medical advances with incentives provided by the original Methuselah Mouse prize, we anticipate that over $10 million will be raised by the time the NewOrgan Prize criteria is met - and the prize presented - to the leading medical R&D team," noted Methuselah Foundation CEO David Gobel. "At minimum, $1 million will be awarded to the research team that develops a whole new human organ that is functional and successfully transplanted." Potential competitors can reach Methuselah Foundation at info@mfoundation.org.

To date, Methuselah Foundation has secured commitments for $3.8 million for prizes to be awarded for specific medical advances. To help support those in need of replacement organs, Methuselah Foundation is also establishing the NewOrgan Network, a wellness community powered by My Bridge 4 Life. At the NewOrgan Network, those in need of replacement organs can reach out to friends and family for personal support - and help drive scientific progress via the NewOrgan Prize. Prospective members of the community can learn more and join the NewOrgan Network at http://www.neworgannetwork.com.

Since 2003, three Methuselah Foundation Mprizes have been presented to researchers, including the Mprize given to Dr. David Sharp for the first drug proven to extend healthy maximum lifespan in mice. All of these prizes recognize breakthroughs that extend the lifespan of mice; they're often referred to as the 'Methuselah Mouse' prizes. In addition to the Mprize series, Methuselah Foundation also funds innovative new companies that are creating breakthrough technologies, products, and solutions. One example is Organovo, which has created the world's first commercial 3D Bio-Printer for manufacturing human tissue and organs. The Foundation believes that this kind of enabling technology will be key to achieving the goals of the NewOrgan Prize.

Methuselah Foundation introduced the first Mprize in 2003 to accelerate the development of revolutionary new life extension innovations. Inspired by the 18th century Longitude Prize, the Mprizes are a series of cash incentive prizes given to the first teams of doctors or scientists to achieve specific life-extending medical goals. Studies have shown that an incentive prize can generate activity worth 50 times its value; that is, a $10 million incentive prize can spark $500 million in scientific research and development. (www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/SSO/And_the_winner_is.pdf).

The Obama Administration recently introduced a Strategy for American Innovation, calling for agencies to increase their ability to promote and harness innovation by using policy tools such as prizes and challenges. See: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-11.pdf

Methuselah Foundation's scientific advisory board includes several luminaries in the biological research and regenerative medicine field: Anthony Atala, MD, W.H. Boyce Professor, Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest University; Stephen F. Badylak, Professor, Department of Surgery and Deputy Director, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh; Robert Cohen, CEO, Miromatrix; Gabor Forgacs, biological physicist at the University of Missouri-Columbia; Keith Murphy, CEO and President, Organovo; and Doris Taylor, Ph.D, Director, Center for Cardiovascular Repair Medtronic Bakken, Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit medical charity dedicated to extending healthy human life. Supported by the donations of individuals and organizations, the programs of Methuselah Foundation include near, mid and long term strategies that advance the mission of ending age-related disease through awareness, education, scientific research and direct community outreach. For more information please visit: www.methuselahfoundation.org.

*http://www.hhs.gov/reference/newfuture.shtml

Editors, please note: Broadcast quality video footage with additional information about the Methuselah Foundation and the NewOrgan Prize can be downloaded at: https://download.yousendit.com/RmNCOU1ha0RoeVpjR0E9PQ

or viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvxiANklVIc

We see the potential for many people to live a long, healthy life who are currently denied that possibility. These are the people who need a new organ. It's April 1st but this is NOT an April Fool's joke. It is good news from your friends at Methuselah Foundation. This is a Pre-Announcement. We want you to be the first to know about the NewOrgan Prize and NewOrgan Network. They will not be announced to the public until next week.

Our new longevity prize specifically focuses on speeding up the development of replacement tissues and organs for humans. The goal is to accelerate advances in regenerative medicine that will become the standard of care for replacing all tissue and organ systems in the body within 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Also Announcing: NewOrgan Network for those in need now.

Do you know someone who needs an organ? To provide a right-now solution Methuselah Foundation is also establishing the NewOrgan Network, a wellness community powered by My Bridge 4 Life. Those in need of replacement organs can reach out to friends and family for personal support. Please take a look, the NewOrgan Network Beta site is up and running now.

Here's how the NewOrgan Prize works:

The first research team to construct a whole new complex organ (heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas) from a person's own cells and successfully transplant it will be awarded the NewOrgan Prize. Our goal is to achieve this medical breakthrough within the next 10 years!

Early next week we will issue a call to action for competitors, candidates and contributors to participate in this crucial medical challenge aimed at extending health human life.

We have already attracted a world class Scientific Advisory Board for this effort, including:

• Anthony Atala, MD - Wake Forest University W.H. Boyce Professor; Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine; Chair, Department of Urology
• Stephen F. Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD - University of Pittsburgh Professor, Department of Surgery; Deputy Director McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine; Director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering
• Gabor Forgacs, Ph.D - University of Missouri George H Vineyard Professor of Theoretical Physics; Scientific Founder, Organovo

In addition to our notable Executive Advisory Board:

• Roger Holzberg, Founder & CEO, My Bridge 4 Life and Methuselah Foundation's CCO/Creative Director
• Keith Murphy, CEO & President, Organovo
• David Jacobs, Founder & CEO, Silverstone Solutions
• Robert Cohen, CEO, Miromatrix

Based on our success in spurring medical advances with the original Methuselah Mouse prize or Mprize, I anticipate that over $10 million will be raised by the time the NewOrgan Prize criteria is met - and the prize presented - to the leading medical R&D team. We hope that the support and interest of friends like you will help us reach our goal. A significant award will encourage more research teams to take on the challenge.

Dave Gobel
Founder, CEO

PS We have put together a quick NewOrgan Prize video to explain the prize, please watch and share it.

PPS Become one of the first to contribute to the NewOrgan Prize. Your gift could help tens of thousands of people live a longer, healthier life.

Methuselah Foundation, a medical non-profit dedicated to extending healthy human life, today announced that it has made an investment in Silverstone Solutions, Inc., a San Francisco-based innovator in life science computing. Silverstone is the leading provider of software that matches recipients and donors in Kidney Paired Donations (KPDs). With this infusion of funding, Methuselah Foundation and Silverstone Solutions will partner to create an online NewOrgan Registry that will connect the millions of people who could benefit from new organs by making their collective medical information available to clinical researchers and scientists. This funding further advances the strategy of the Methuselah Foundation to accelerate medical research that delivers fundamental technologies to extend healthy human life.

"Silverstone's proprietary MatchMaker product is a prime example of using information technology to extend healthy human life," said Methuselah Foundation CEO David Gobel. "Our strategic partnership with Silverstone, an organ pair matching innovator, will save lives today, and many more tomorrow. Our investment will vastly increase the opportunity to source and match organs by moving Silverstone's MatchMaker to the Internet, making it available not only to the largest regional medical systems, but to each and every local kidney clinic. Silverstone's efforts are aligned with our mission of recognizing and rewarding technologists whose work helps extend life. We see a variety of opportunities to apply Silverstone's technology to other organs and tissues, and widen the circle of potential recipients who can find suitable donors through the use of this innovative product."

"We are very happy to be working in a strategic partnership with Methuselah Foundation," said Silverstone CEO David Jacobs. "Their innovative approach is exactly what is needed in the organ transplant world, and the medical field in general. This investment will allow Silverstone to make product enhancements that will significantly increase the number of people we can serve. We look forward to working with Methuselah Foundation to transform organ transplantation worldwide." This strategic partnership is designed to go hand in hand with Methuselah Foundation's recent founding investment in Organovo, the recognized world leader in commercially available 3D tissue printing.

"The kidney matching capability of MatchMaker and the tissue printing capabilities of Organovo's tissue printer heralds the dawning of a whole new era in organ transplantation, regenerative medicine and in the not too distant future - the creation of whole new replacement organs from one's own cells," noted Gobel. "As a result, the Foundation's donors have made yet another significant contribution to save, extend and improve significant numbers of lives."

Powerful algorithms in Silverstone's MatchMaker product maximize the number of potential organ matches in the recipient/donor pool, and improve the medical quality of the matches. Piloted at a major West Coast hospital transplant center, SilverStone's MatchMaker software has been in use since 2006, and has proven itself to be a valuable life-saving tool, already significantly increasing living donor yields - and saving over 60 lives. "With our application now proven, Silverstone will be taking the MatchMaker product to the rest of the kidney transplant world, and beyond," noted Jacobs.

Helping deliver such breakthrough life extending technologies to market, in conjunction with multi-million dollar performance prizes that Methuselah Foundation presents to leading medical researchers, helps accelerate technological and biological advances in regenerative medicine. Methuselah Foundation, thanks in large part to the generosity of its donors, funds multiple strategies designed develop medical innovations. The MLife Sciences program, the Methuselah Foundation's investment arm, seeks long-term strategies to combat the progressive, degenerative process of biological aging.

About Methuselah Foundation

Methuselah Foundation is a non-profit medical charity dedicated to extending healthy human life. Supported by the donations of individuals and organizations, the programs of Methuselah Foundation include near, mid and long term strategies that advance the mission of ending age-related disease through awareness, education, scientific research and direct community outreach. For more information please visit: www.methuselahfoundation.org.

About Silverstone Solutions and Matchmaker

Silverstone Solutions, an innovator in life science computing, was founded by David S. Jacobs, a successful software entrepreneur who himself is a kidney transplant recipient. Driven by his own personal experience, he designed the company's flagship product - Silverstone Matchmaker. Matchmaker was inspired by the need to more effectively utilize scarce, living donor organs and deliver them to patients in need. This shortens the length of time people spend on the deceased donor organ list, saves substantial healthcare costs relating to dialysis treatments, and ultimately helps save lives. In 2009, David Jacobs and Silverstone Solutions was awarded the DEMOgod award at the prestigious DEMO conference. More information about the company and its products is available at www.silverstonesolutions.com.

About Organovo, Inc.

Organovo, Inc. is a seed-stage regenerative medicine company that applies proprietary organ printing technology to solve critical problems in transplant medicine, cardiovascular medicine, tissue repair, and medical research. Organovo aims to solve complex medical problems with one overarching goal: to benefit the health and lives of patients. http://www.organovo.com Organovo, Inc. as a leader in the extraordinary science of bio-printing. The US Department of Health and Human Services predicts "Within 20 years regenerative medicine will be the standard of care for replacing all tissue/organ systems in the body." Organovo, with the support of Methuselah Foundation, is applying its breakthrough organ printing technologies to make that prediction a reality.

The Donor's Key Club previews the results of new longevity research funded by Methuselah Foundation, and made possible through the generous support of our many donors. News from the laboratories, advance notice of new research results, webinars, and interviews with researchers in fields important to human longevity: all these and more will be forthcoming. Watch this space!

Only donors to Methuselah Foundation can access the Donor's Key Club; please contact our Senior Donor Concierge Kamol Farid if you are a Foundation supporter and need assistance in logging in to the Donor's Key Club.

The first materials added to the Club include an essay by Dave Gobel and the results of research into the biochemistry of supercentarians encouraged by Methuselah Foundation. From this modest start, the Donor's Key Club will grow to be a way for supporters to learn more about healthy longevity and aging science, and clearly see how their donations are used to advance the state of the art.