I just wanted to make sure you were made aware of a fundraising dinner we have set up at the "21 Club" in Manhattan on July 30th, where Aubrey de Grey will be providing an overview of the Foundation's latest efforts and advances.

We are using this opportunity essentially as the Foundation's "coming out" party in NY and will include a small group of 10 to 20 people consisting of previous donors as well as some of our personal NYC contacts. The event will start at 6:30 pm and will consist of a half hour open bar, followed by a three course sit down dinner where Aubrey will provide an overview of the foundation's goals, the foundation's efforts to date (the SENS strategies, the Mprize, the 300 group) as well as some the foundation's latest research developments. There is a $250 per person cost, but the goal of this initial NYC event is not to make a significant amount of money from the event itself, but rather to develop a Methuselah Foundation donor community in the NYC area.

Please feel free to contact the Methuselah Foundation with any questions, and to pass this information on to anyone who may be interested in attending this event.

In its present form, the initiative provides students with the knowledge and logistical support to develop their own projects to further the agendas of the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit organization which supports research and advocacy for radically extending healthy human life. As a means for promoting student interest, thousands of dollars in scholarship funds, grants, and man hours are provided annually. These support mechanisms, coupled with the logistical support of numerous dedicated, professional volunteer coordinators, provide unprecedented opportunity for student development and success in most any academic discipline. In addition to becoming eligible for scholarships and general support, MFURI students are also given the choice to perform projects and initiatives for university credit virtually anywhere within the United States.

Foundation volunteer and Director of Undergraduate Affairs Kelsey Moody adds:

We have opportunities for students of almost all academic backgrounds to contribute, and are also looking for qualified volunteers to help mediate and coordinate the students.

This is a great opportunity to get involved in researching the development of longevity medicine.

Gandhi once said, describing his critics, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

After declaring, essentially out of nowhere, that he had a program to end the disease of aging, renegade biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey knows how the first three steps of Gandhi's progression feel. Now he's focused on the fourth.

"I've been at Gandhi stage three for maybe a couple of years," de Grey said. "If you're trying to make waves, certainly in science, there's a lot of people who are going to have insufficient vision to bother to understand what you're trying to say."

This weekend, his organization, The Methuselah Foundation, is sponsoring its first U.S. conference on the emerging interdisciplinary field that de Grey has helped kick start. (Its first day, Friday, will be free and open to the public.) The conference, Aging: The Disease - The Cure - The Implications, held at UCLA, is an indication of how far de Grey has come in mainstreaming his ideas.

The Methuselah Foundation has come a long way since things first started moving back in 2004 - congratulations are due to everyone who has helped make this organization the success it is.

AmyloSENS - cleaning up extracellular junk:

The Methuselah Foundation is presently in discussion with leading researchers in this field with a view to initiating work on a vaccine - similar to that developed by Elan for Alzheimer's disease - to stimulate the aged body to clear the widespread amyloids (particular of transthyretin) responsible for senile systemic amyloidosis.

ApoptoSENS - removing senescent and other "gone bad" cells:

During 2008, the Methuselah Foundation will launch a project to develop a procedure for clearing aged T cells from the blood of mice, and potentially thereafter in primates. This work will be supervised by one of the top professors in the immunosenescence field.

GlycoSENS - breaking down crosslinks and AGEs:

The Methuselah Foundation is currently planning out a project to engineer enzymes capable of cleaving the ubiquitous glucosepane crosslinks, which may comprise as much as 98% of all the long-lived crosslinks in aged human tissue. This work is still in the early planning stages, but we hope to be able to begin full-time research before the end of 2008.

OncoSENS - alter cells to prevent cancer:

The Methuselah Foundation is planning to launch three projects in the OncoSENS strand during 2008.

The first project aims to characterise the enzyme responsible for [alternative lengthening of telomeres], which is still unknown. Recently, however, observations in two different organs have given good reason to consider a hitherto unsuspected gene. A relatively simple series of experiments could test this hypothesis.

The second project addresses a potential problem with the WILT strategy. It’s possible that telomerase activity per se - independent of telomere length - may have roles in maintaining the health of the stem cells themselves, or of their rarely-dividing neighbours in the so-called "stem cell niche". We are arranging a project to address this question, in the blood of mice, with the world’s leading professor in the area.

Finally, the theory that non-cancer-causing mutations are unlikely to be harmful in a normal lifetime - protagonistic pleiotropy - is not yet widely accepted. We are therefore initiating a rigorous study into the effects of such mutations in mouse brains.

So, it has been a lot of work. But the upshot is that we will be able to initiate at least three, and perhaps even more, projects this year, over and above the two big projects that we have been doing over the past couple of years - namely, the identification of bacterial genes that can break down things that we can't, and the relocation of mitochondrial DNA into the nucleus. Both of those projects are obviously continuing and will be growing, in terms of manpower, during this year.

...

Another area of SENS that is completely separate from cancer is the elimination of cells that won't die. Of course cancer is a problem of having too many cells because the cells are dividing like crazy. They are also dying like crazy, but they are dividing even more crazily. That's what cancer is. There are other problems that are caused by cells that are actually not dividing, but they are not dying either, and they are accumulating slowly as a result. They get in the way and cause various problems just by being there.

Probably the most serious example of this is the immune system.

...

The upshot is that there is a good chance that we are going to be able to fund a project starting this year that will get a good deal further towards the goal in mice of eliminating these clonal expansions of what are called anergic - essentially broken - CD8 cells. The hope certainly is that this will play a large role in rejuvenating the immune system. There is one other thing that we want to do that is also required for rejuvenating the immune system, and that is to restore the size of a very important organ in the immune system called the thymus, which is - for whatever reason - something that shrinks throughout life and gets, even by the sort of age I am, down to 10 or 15% the size that it was in early life. It is believed that this has also a rather large role to play in the increasing dysfunction of the immune system. We want to regrow the thymus as well.

There's much more along those lines, touching on WILT (Whole-body Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres), cancer, stem cell therapies to replace worn tissue, and removal of amyloid, to name a few items.

The Methuselah Foundation announces Aging 2008 at UCLA: On Friday June 27th, leading scientists and thinkers in stem cell research and regenerative medicine will gather in Los Angeles at UCLA for Aging 2008 to explain how their work can combat human aging, and the sociological implications of developing rejuvenation therapies.

Aging 2008 is free, with advance registration required at http://www.mfoundation.org/Aging2008/

Dr. Aubrey de Grey, chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation, said "Our organization has raised over $10 million to crack open the logjams in longevity science. With the two-armed strategy of direct investments into key research projects, and a competitive prize to spur on scientists racing to break rejuvenation and longevity records in lab mice, the Foundation is actively accelerating the drive toward a future free of age-related degeneration." The Methuselah Foundation has been covered by 60 Minutes, Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal, and other top-flight media outlets.

The State of California is a frontrunner in regenerative medicine and stem cell research. On November 2, 2004, more than seven million Californians voted to pass Proposition 71, establishing the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and allocating $3 billion over ten years to fund stem cell research. Proposition 71 was a rare instance of voters directly authorizing funding for scientific research.

The speakers at Aging 2008 will argue that the near-term consequences of intense research into regenerative medicine could be the development of therapies that extend healthy human life by decades, even if the therapies are applied in middle age. Peter Thiel, president of Clarium Capital, initial investor in Facebook, and lead sponsor of Aging 2008, said, "The time has come to challenge the inevitability of aging. This forum will provide an excellent opportunity to look at the scientific barriers that must be overcome to substantially extend healthy human life, as well as the ethical implications of doing so."

Aging 2008 also serves as the free opening session for the technically focused Understanding Aging Conference, which will run at UCLA on June 28th and 29th.

What: Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications, hosted by Methuselah Foundation
When: Friday, June 27, 2008, Drinks 4pm, Presentations 5pm, Dinner 8pm
Where: Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Who:

• Dr. Bruce Ames, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UC Berkeley
• G. Steven Burrill, Chairman of Pharmasset and Chairman of Campaign for Medical Research
• Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chairman and CSO of Methuselah Foundation and author of Ending Aging
• Dr. William Haseltine, Chairman of Haseltine Global Health
• Daniel Perry, Executive Director of Alliance for Aging Research
• Bernard Siegel, Executive Director of Genetics Policy Institute
• Dr. Gregory Stock, Director of Program on Medicine, Technology & Society at UCLA School of Medicine
• Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime and Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley

About the Methuselah Foundation

The Methuselah Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to extending the healthy human lifespan. Founded in 2002 by entrepreneur David Gobel and gerontologist Dr. Aubrey de Grey, the Methuselah Foundation funds two major projects: the Mprize, a multimillion dollar research prize, and SENS, a detailed engineering plan to repair aging-related damage. Learn more at http://www.mfoundation.org

Aging 2008, at UCLA in Los Angeles, has the potential to be a watershed event for the Foundation. Here's the website with details:

http://mfoundation.org/aging2008

We're looking for as many volunteers as possible to help with Aging 2008. Please contact the Foundation if you can volunteer

• online;
• or in the Los Angeles area;
• or at a college/university in Southern California

...along with your availability, interests, and any special skills or knowledge you can offer. Here's the schedule:

June 27 - Aging: The Disease, The Cure, The Implications (free public symposium)
June 28-29 - Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches (scientific conference)

We need your help to prepare for and publicize these events - especially the June 27th symposium, when we have to fill Royce Hall with 1,800 people. Here's how you can immediately help to publicize this event:

1) Blog about Aging 2008; if you do, let us know and we'll add you to the Aging 2008 Blogroll

2) Put up a banner or button, and send banners/buttons to others:

http://mfoundation.org/aging2008/promote/

3) Send the May 18th press release to your network and media contacts:

http://mfoundation.org/aging2008/promote/Aging2008PressRelease.pdf

4) Promote through social networks, Twitter, and mailing lists

5) Put up/hand out flyers and postcards at colleges, bookstores, etc. in L.A. and surrounding regions:

http://mfoundation.org/aging2008/promote/#flyers

6) Help us get pre-event coverage: online, print, radio, and TV

7) Share Aubrey's videos (TEDTalk, Colbert Report, etc.) by putting them on your blog or sending them to friends:

http://mfoundation.org/aging2008/promote/#video

There's something for everyone - invite any friends that can help volunteer too! We need to tell the world that the aging process is an approachable challenge with the technologies we have at hand. Regenerative medicine is still in its infancy, and we can work to make the defeat of aging a key goal for this emerging field.

Now is the time for us to step up to a higher level of public engagement!

Methuselah Foundation Welcomes Kevin M. Dewalt to Executive Advisory Board

The Methuselah Foundation is pleased to announce that Kevin M. Dewalt, currently a Director at In-Q-Tel, has joined the Executive Advisory Board of the Methuselah Foundation. As a member of the Board, Mr. Dewalt will help the Foundation plan and execute strategic operating initiatives to grow from a start-up organization to a world-class non-profit.

In-Q-Tel is an independent strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the broader U.S. Intelligence Community. Mr. Dewalt has over 15 years experience driving technology innovation in start-ups, large companies, and the federal government. His past experience includes work for the US Coast Guard, The Motley Fool, and FINRA (NASD).

Mr. Dewalt received a Commission and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the US Coast Guard Academy where he was the #1 graduate in his class. He received a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

About his joining the Foundation, Mr. Dewalt remarked, "I'm honored to be working with Dr. Aubrey de Grey and the rest of the Foundation to help advance the long-term humanitarian mission of extending healthy human lives worldwide by curing the diseases that cause debility and suffering as we age."

Methuselah Foundation Welcomes Roger Holzberg as Chief Marketing Officer/Creative Director

The Methuselah Foundation is pleased to announce that Roger Holzberg, formerly Award winning Vice President/Creative Director at the Walt Disney Company (first at Disney Interactive, then at Imagineering), has joined the Methuselah Foundation as Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Holzberg is taking the lead in honing the Methuselah Foundation's marketing strategy as it pursues its mission of extending healthy human life.

While at Disney, Roger had the opportunity to lead the creative development for a broad portfolio of projects ranging from PlayStation games to theme park icons; from mass audience interactive experiences and rides to commerce applications that promote and sell the worldwide resorts and cruise line; to the MMOG Virtual Magic Kingdom. He is listed as "inventor" for four Disney patents.

Before Disney, Roger helped build Knowledge Adventure, creator of the Jumpstart brand, and was a creative leader in interactive projects like Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair and Starbrite Worlds Online. In "classic media" he has written and directed feature films and television, but is particularly proud of researching/writing "The Living Sea" (Academy Award nomination for best documentary -- IMAX).

"Having served on the Methuselah Foundation advisory board since 2003, I am thrilled to take the lead in building public awareness for this extraordinary science initiative," Holzberg said.

As more talented people and generous philanthropists join our cause, we forge our way onwards and upwards, towards the defeat of age-related frailty, disease and death through medical research and new biotechnology.

The inaugural Los Angeles team meeting for Aging 2008 will take place on the front steps of Royce Hall, this Sunday May 18, starting at 2pm. It will last at least an hour. Instructions for finding Royce Hall can be found at the conference website.

Please invite any friends that can help volunteer with our Los Angeles operations!

New faces are welcome, and if you'd like to help spread the word about longevity science, then drop by.

You can find out more about the SENS research funded and organized by the Methuselah Foundation at our website, and in the most recent progress report issued by the Foundation:

The Foundation currently sponsors research in two of the seven strands of the SENS program: preventing the harm caused by mitochondrial mutations (MitoSENS) and degrading damaging, long-lived cellular debris (LysoSENS).

...

A selection of [further] projects within the SENS plan are ready to be launched as Foundation-sponsored research programs. [As] for MitoSENS and LysoSENS, these projects will start small (likely with only a single researcher), with the aim of delivering high leverage in terms of the credibility of the approach.

We look forward to continued expansion and progress in the year ahead.

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to remind you that the early registration and abstract submission deadlines for the conference "Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches" are coming up on May 15th. This conference, to be held at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA on June 27th-29th 2008, is organised jointly by me, Irina Conboy of UC Berkeley, and Amy Wagers of Harvard. All details, including forms for abstract submission and online registration, are at the conference website:

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/UABBA/

Please note that standard registration fees are fully inclusive of three nights' accommodation and all meals. However, there is also a deeply discounted non-residential rate of just $150 for students and $300 for others. Registration is by credit card at this page:

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/UABBA/tickets/

Journalists wishing to obtain press passes are asked to contact me by email.

The program has over two dozen confirmed speakers, all of them world leaders in their field. As for previous conferences I have [co-] organised, the emphasis of this meeting is on "applied biogerontology" -- the design and implementation of biomedical interventions that may, jointly, constitute a comprehensive panel of rejuvenation therapies, sufficient to restore middle-aged or older laboratory animals (and, in due course, humans) to a youthful degree of physiological robustness. The list of scientific sessions and confirmed speakers is as follows:

-- DNA damage, telomeres, cancer --
Adam Arkin, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Jan Vijg, Buck Institute for Age Research; Jerry Shay, U. Texas Southwestern; Bill Andrews, Sierra Sciences; Claudia Gravekamp, Pacific Medical Center Research Institute; Zheng Cui, Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Rita Effros, UCLA

-- The cell niche --
Irina Conboy, U. California Berkeley; Judith Campisi, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Buck Institute; Leanne Jones, Salk Institute; Ken Muneoka, Tulane University; Kevin Healy, Stanford University

-- Accumulation of damaged molecules --
Bruce Rittmann, Arizona State University; Ana Maria Cuervo, Albert Einstein University; Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, Uniersity of Florida; Marisol Corral-Debrinski, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Richard Hanson, Case Western Reserve University

-- Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine --
Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Oregon National Primate Research Center; Stephen Badylak, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine; Doris Taylor, University of Minnesota; Matthias Stelzner, VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System & UCLA; Amy Wagers, Joslin Diabetes Center; David Schaffer, U. California Berkeley; Tony De Tomaso, Stanford University School of Medicine

In addition, there will be short talks selected from submitted abstracts, as well as poster sessions each evening. To submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation, please go here:

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/UABBA/presenting/absub/

The provisional agenda is here:

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/UABBA/agenda/

Furthermore, registration for the conference includes preferential admission to the free public preconference "Aging: the disease, the cure, the implications" which will be held in the 1800-seater Royce Hall, UCLA, on the evening of Friday June 27th, and free admission to the dinner and reception following (which costs $30 for others). This preconference will put the postponement of aging more firmly on the political and social map than ever before. It will consist of presentations by numerous illustrious speakers, including:

William Haseltine, Haseltine Global Health, founder of Human Genome Sciences Bruce Ames, Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, National Medal of Science awardee Michael West, Biotime Inc., founder of Geron and Advanced Cell Technology Daniel Perry, Director of the Alliance for Aging Research Gregory Stock, UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society and Signum Biosciences Steve Burrill, Founder and Chairman, Burrill and Company Bernard Siegel, Executive Director, Genetics Policy Institute

I hope to welcome you to Los Angeles in June!

Aubrey de Grey
Co-Chair, "Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches"
Chairman and Chief Science Officer, Methuselah Foundation Editor-in-Chief, Rejuvenation Research (impact factor 8.353)

It should go without saying that Methuselah Foundation donors are wonderful, generous people of vision. Thank you!

Engineering an End to Aging, an evening with Dr. Aubrey de Grey

Find out why MIT's Technology Review, the New York Times, the Economist, Fortune Magazine, Popular Science, Barbara Walters, 60 Minutes, even Stephen Colbert think Dr. Aubrey de Grey may have found the way to end aging.

Enjoy Dr. de Grey's engaging and entertaining speaking style. Get a chance to talk to this pioneer in the world of longevity research. Learn about the latest breakthroughs in life extension. Network with influential individuals interested in the future of bio-tech here in central Florida.

Many thanks to the volunteers and advocates who helped to make this possible!

How many healthy, youthful years of life do you think you could add to people's lives, in your life?

The ultimate purpose of this book is to show you that you could add many more years than you may currently think. So many, in fact, that now is the time to decide whether you want to.