Aubrey de Grey discusses progress with ending aging, from strategies to repair damage to the RMR project's interventions in middle-aged mice. He also explores a mouse experiment for life extension, advancements in longevity research, and the X-prize HealthSpan award for rejuvenation research.
Aubrey de Grey advocates for a divide-and-conquer strategy to repair body damage, revolutionizing the fight against aging.
The SENS framework categorizes damage types and proposes repair strategies, offering a structured roadmap for combating aging effectively.
Deep dives
Progress in Ending Aging and Philosophy of Damage Repair
Aubrey de Grey discusses the progress in ending aging by highlighting the philosophy of a divide-and-conquer approach for damage repair in the body. He emphasizes that before this approach was established, there was no clear plan to combat aging. De Grey explains how the identification of categories of damage and corresponding repair paradigms have paved the way for developing concrete proposals in rejuvenating therapies, ultimately aiming to reverse human aging.
SENS Approach and Hallmarks of Aging
De Grey elaborates on the SENS approach identifying categories of damage in the body and outlining repair strategies for each category. He mentions the Hallmarks of Aging paper from 2013, which solidified the scientific validity of the damage repair approach. By categorizing damage types and proposing generic repair approaches, the SENS framework has provided a structured roadmap towards combating aging effectively.
Robust Mouse Rejuvenation Experiment and Longevity
De Grey discusses the Robust Mouse Rejuvenation experiment aimed at testing interventions to delay decline in cognitive and physical functions of mice. By starting interventions in middle-aged mice and observing their effects on lifespan, the experiment aims to identify effective rejuvenation strategies. De Grey highlights the importance of extending human lifespan through innovative experiments like RMR, potentially changing the public perception of aging.
X-Prize HealthSpan Award and Longevity Declaration
The discussion shifts towards the X-Prize HealthSpan Award, a $101 million initiative targeting treatments that reverse aging indicators in humans. De Grey explains the role of the X-Prize in driving significant research and attracting key players. Additionally, he emphasizes the Dublin Longevity Declaration as a call to acknowledge the feasibility of comprehensive medical control of aging, aiming to transform public opinion and influence policy decisions.
Our topic in this episode is progress with ending aging. Our guest is the person who literally wrote the book on that subject, namely the book, “Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime”. He is Aubrey de Grey, who describes himself in his Twitter biography as “spearheading the global crusade to defeat aging”.
In pursuit of that objective, Aubrey co-founded the Methuselah Foundation in 2003, the SENS Research Foundation in 2009, and the LEV Foundation, that is the Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation, in 2022, where he serves as President and Chief Science Officer.
Full disclosure: David also has a role on the executive management team of LEV Foundation, but for this recording he was wearing his hat as co-host of the London Futurists Podcast.
The conversation opens with this question: "When people are asked about ending aging, they often say the idea sounds nice, but they see no evidence for any actual progress toward ending aging in humans. They say that they’ve heard talk about that subject for years, or even decades, but wonder when all that talk is going to result in people actually living significantly longer. How do you respond?"