Aubrey de Grey

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Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey

Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey, Ph.D., (born 20 April 1963 in London, England) is a controversial biomedical gerontologist who lives in the city of Cambridge, UK. He is working to expedite the development of a cure for human ageing, a medical goal he refers to as engineered negligible senescence. To this end, he has identified what he concludes are the seven areas of the aging process that need to be addressed medically before this can be done. He has been interviewed in recent years in many news sources, including CBS 60 Minutes, BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, and Popular Science. His main activities at present are as chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation and editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research.

Aubrey de Grey was educated at Harrow School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Prior to his work in cellular and molecular biology, he studied computer science. In 1985 he received a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and joined Sinclair Research Ltd as an AI/software engineer; in 1986 he co-founded Man-Made Minions Ltd to pursue the development of an automated formal program verifier. Although de Grey has never held a teaching position at Cambridge, until 2006 he was in charge of software development at the Genetics Department for the FlyBase genetic database.

In 1995 de Grey turned his attention to the biology of aging and published the book The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (ISBN 1-58706-155-4). The book controversially claimed that obviating damage to mitochondria might by itself extend lifespan significantly, though it stated that it was more likely that cumulative damage to mitochondria is a significant cause of senescence, but not the single dominant cause. Cambridge granted de Grey a Ph.D. in biology in 2000.[1]. A February 8, 2007 search for "de Grey AD [au]" on PubMed [2] revealed 61 publications in 25 peer-reviewed journals, of which 19 are in Rejuvenation Research, the journal edited by de Grey.

Rejuvenation Research, the academic journal edited by De Grey.
Rejuvenation Research, the academic journal edited by De Grey.

Regarding his background as a computer scientist (in genetics), he states:

"There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a scientist and being a technical engineer. It means that I’m able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think."[3]

He argues that the fundamental knowledge necessary to develop effective anti-aging medicine mostly exists today, and that the science is actually ahead of the funding. He works to identify and promote specific technological approaches to the reversal of various aspects of aging, or as De Grey puts it, "the set of accumulated side effects from metabolism that eventually kills us",[4] and for the more proactive and urgent approaches to extending the healthy human lifespan. Regarding this issue, De Grey is a supporter of life extension.

As of 2005, de Grey's work centered upon a detailed plan called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) which is aimed at preventing age-related physical and cognitive decline. He is also the co-founder (with David Gobel) and chief scientist of the Methuselah Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Springfield, Virginia, USA. A major activity of the Methuselah Foundation is the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a prize designed to accelerate research into effective life extension interventions by awarding monetary prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. Regarding this, De Grey stated in March 2005 "if we are to bring about real regenerative therapies that will benefit not just future generations, but those of us who are alive today, we must encourage scientists to work on the problem of aging". The prize reached US$4.2 million in February 2007. De Grey believes that once dramatic life extension of already middle-aged mice has been achieved, a large amount of funding will be diverted to this kind of research, which would accelerate progress in doing the same for humans.

In 2005, de Grey was the subject of a critical article in MIT's Technology Review. See De Grey Technology Review controversy.

On 16 September 2006, Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of the online payments system PayPal, announced that he is pledging $3.5 million to the Methuselah Foundation "to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging".[5]

De Grey is a competitive Othello player, and well-known figure at British Othello championships.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] The seven types of aging damage proposed by de Grey

  1. Nuclear Mutations/Epimutations:
    These are changes to the DNA, the molecule that contains our genetic information, or to proteins which bind to the DNA. Certain mutations can lead to cancer.
  2. Mitochondrial Mutations:
    Mitochondria are components in our cells that are important for energy production. They contain their own genetic material, and mutations to their DNA can affect a cell’s ability to function properly. Indirectly, these mutations may accelerate many aspects of aging.
  3. Intracellular Junk:
    Our cells are constantly breaking down proteins and other molecules that are no longer useful or which can be harmful. Those molecules which can’t be digested simply accumulate as junk inside our cells. Atherosclerosis, macular degeneration and all kinds of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease) are associated with this problem.
  4. Extracellular Junk:
    Harmful junk protein can also accumulate outside of our cells. The amyloid plaque seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients is one example.
  5. Cell Loss:
    Some of the cells in our bodies cannot be replaced, or can only be replaced very slowly - more slowly than they die. This decrease in cell number causes the heart to become weaker with age, and it also causes Parkinson's disease and impairs the immune system.
  6. Cell Senescence:
    This is a phenomenon where the cells are no longer able to divide, but also do not die and let others divide. They may also do other things that they’re not supposed to, like secreting proteins that could be harmful. Immune senescence and type 2 diabetes are caused by this.
  7. Extracellular Crosslinks:
    Cells are held together by special linking proteins. When too many cross-links form between cells in a tissue, the tissue can lose its elasticity and cause problems including arterioscerosis and presbyopia.[6]

[edit] Scientific journal

[edit] Recorded public appearances

[edit] Conferences

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006

  • Tomorrows People Forum 2006: Longer? (2:00:58) The "Longer?" lecture (Presentation 3) for the Tomorrows People Conference Forum 2006 that took place on the 14-17 of March 2006 at the Saïd Business School at Oxford.

[edit] TV interview

  • Interview on GMTV's Good Morning at YouTube (7:23) Interview on Britain's GMTV program "Good Morning" with Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield surrounding extreme life extension and its feasibility in the next 25 years

[edit] Film

  • Exploring Life Extension (1:45:32) A film by the Immortality Institute that explores various aspects of extreme life extension including cryogenics, caloric restriction, transhumanism, and other scientific pursuits of extreme life extension.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2000-01/weekly/5831/27.html
  2. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed
  3. ^ http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html
  4. ^ http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html
  5. ^ http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/18/BAGF5L7LQS1.DTL
  6. ^ http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html

[edit] External links

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