Aubrey de Grey
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Aubrey de Grey (b. 1963) is a biogerontologist, and is a Computer Associate at the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, England. He is working to expedite the development of a 'cure' for human cellular aging, a medical goal he refers to as engineered negligible senescence (senescence means aging). 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 the BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, and Popular Science.
Prior to his work as a biologist, de Grey was formally trained in computer science and bioinformatics. 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 basic scientist and being an 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."[1] (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html)
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,"[2] (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html), 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.
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As of 2005, de Grey's current work at Cambridge centered around 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 and chief scientist of 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 $1 million USD in March 2005. De Grey believes that once this objective has been achieved in mice, a large amount of funding will be diverted to this kind of research, which would accelerate progress.
External links
- SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) (http://admin-sun1.gen.cam.ac.uk/sens/)
- Methuselah Mouse Prize (http://www.methuselahmouse.org/)
- Aubrey de Grey is also an advisor of The NanoAging Institute (http://www.nanoaging.com)
- Aubrey de Grey is also an advisor of The Singularity Institute (http://www.singinst.org/advisoryboard.html)
- Interview with BBC website, outlining views (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4003063.stm)
- Popular Science article (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/article/0,20967,929447,00.html)
- Technology Review article (http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/feature_aging.asp)
- Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050411_aubrey_interview.html) interview with LiveScience