The SENS Challenge

http://www.technolog...593,312,p1.html

In July 2005, Technology Review announced a prize for any molecular biologist working in the field of aging who could successfully meet the following challenge: demonstrate that SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence), Aubrey de Grey's prescription for defeating aging, is so wrong that it is unworthy of learned debate. We pledged to pay $10,000 to the authors of a winning submission. Not to be upstaged, The Methuselah Foundation, an organization founded by de Grey and devoted to promoting anti-aging science, pledged an additional $10,000 to anyone who meets the requirements of the challenge.

I contacted the editor ( jason.pontin@technologyreview.com ) and pledged an additional $2000 to this challenge today. He then asked me a few questions about my involvement in life extension, specifically what I do. Here's what I wrote:

I take some 120 supplements a day, mostly food extracts or polyphenols, like blueberry, turmeric, green tea, resveratrol (the key polyphenol from grapes/red wine), cocoa and cinnamon powder, etc.  Plus a few xenobiotics (chemicals not found in nature), like Deprenyl ( http://www.ceri.com/deprenyl.htm ) and even some currently-under-research chemicals that are not available to the public yet, but have profound health benefits -- these chemicals will not be approved by the FDA simply because the FDA does not have an "anti-aging" or "pro-health" category, they only approve drugs that mask illnesses, like statins.  So, the public will likely never get to benefit from these life extending xenobiotics.  I also use hormone supplementation, to counteract the normal age-related decline everyone of us experiences.  And I eat a super healthy whole foods, organic diet, and do intense strength training and martial arts (two black belts).

My goal is to live to at least 105, which I think is a very reasonable goal nowadays.  Most people do not live this long merely because most people do not try.  And I admit, it takes dedication, effort and money (luckily, my company has made me wealthy).  But, at nearly 45 I'm stronger and more active than I've ever been -- just a few weeks ago out ran a 19 year old soccer player in a 150 meter race, and I can squat 385 pounds for reps.

I've also helped several other people overcome serious cancer, high cholesterol and other conditions, all through following my advice on supplements and food.  So, there's no question this stuff works.  But still, it's all just a stop-gap solution versus SENS, which promises true rejuvenation therapy, and significant (perhaps eventually endless) life extension.  By reaching the 100 year mark, I hope to live long enough to live forever.  Or, at least until I wish to die on my own schedule.

Holy smokes, $2000!

Wow. Now, I bet you think you might not have to pay ... but that's a heck of a gamble you're making.

Thanks.

Another thread with Aubrey's comments Apparently the May/June 2006 issue of Technology Review is when it will be announced if there are any winners (or if everyone failed) for the SENS challenge.

Thanks so much Dukenukem. Great Job!! You are really putting your money where your mouth is.

Thanks for this. However, I should say that since there are now three submissions, the case for raising the stakes is diminishing. If (a) I succeed in rebutting these three, (b) no more submissions are forthcoming for a while, and © my critics start to say that $20k isn't enough, then will be the time to chip in serious money. At this point the main reason to contribute is to demonstrate support for the concept of the SENS Challenge, and $100 per donor would do that just fine.

Also ... the pressure's on me already -- not sure I can take much more! :-)

Thanks for this.  However, I should say that since there are now three submissions, the case for raising the stakes is diminishing. If (a) I succeed in rebutting these three, (b) no more submissions are forthcoming for a while, and © my critics start to say that $20k isn't enough, then will be the time to chip in serious money. At this point the main reason to contribute is to demonstrate support for the concept of the SENS Challenge, and $100 per donor would do that just fine.

Also ... the pressure's on me already -- not sure I can take much more! :-)

We all have confidence in you Aubrey! [thumb]

Well done Dukenukem!

Also ... the pressure's on me already -- not sure I can take much more! :-)

Should you need anything, you have the entire Imminst contingent at your disposal.

Hi DukeNukem - It's none of my business what you do with your money. But here's an idea that might have merit...

Perhaps Jason would be interested in a "winner take all" component to the challenge? IE folks such as yourself could add to the challenge where the terms are. If a challenger wins he/she gets the money. If no one wins SENS research gets the money...There's a chance that with a $2k seed others might add to the pot if it get some publicity (which MF could potentially pony up with everyone's permission of course).

Cheers,
Dave

Here is a nice summary of the SENS Challenge in the BBC

I am still amazed at the EMBO reports letter attacking Aubrey. I know all the rationalizations for why they [airquote] had [/airquote] to do it. Still, their reason for not taking up the SENS challenge is just silly. Their stated reason in the article linked above is that they don't want to give Aubrey more press. COME ON! Who believes that. Someone born yesterday.....maybe? If they are so certain that SENS is bunk they would have already pocketed the 20,000 and left Aubrey in shambles. They are either not smart enough for the challenge or too arrogant to for their own good.

Aubrey, as Prometheus mentioned earlier, please feel free to tap the many minds here at Imminst for help.

Most medical research is done by trying to prevent people dying. And Aubrey says we should simply extend this into ageing. Actually, now, we are in a situation of being able to harness what comes from the basic biomedical research to try to devise a better way to age.

Often unmentioned is the undeniable link between the most common diseases and aging - eg. cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and neurodegeneration. Consequently, treating aging itself (genomic instability and stem cell depletion) as a disease process results in addressing root cause factors in those diseases. It is not difficult to appreciate that a treatment for aging is in effect a universal treatment for most serious diseases - those diseases are practically nonexistent in the young. This is a paradigm shift in how medicine should be practiced - proactively rather than reactively, correcting rather than repairing and eventually enhancing rather than correcting - and stands to face great resistance from the medical community whose methodology has been centered around guiding endogenous and innate healing processes - for as long as they are functioning.

The question is, what will it take for the medical community to undergo the necessary paradigm shift? The advent of personalised genotyping will probably spread the meme of the role that genes play in lifespan and health more than any other factor and provide the impetus for this transformation. Once society accepts that individual genetic makeup can render a difference of as much as 50* years of healthy life irregardless of how careful and proactive one is about environmental influence, urgent questions will be asked about how to change one's genome - how to get as close to the maximum lifespan of 120 as possible whilst retaining good health and mental function.

Thus we should see ushered a new age of personal genetic enhancement with a view towards levelling the lifespan playing field - or rather raising it to Calmentesque levels. With such interventions in place the notion of SENS, which by then will also have evolved methodologically, will be accepted as a matter of course, naturally and with no fuss.


* The longest lived person recorded - JL Calment (122 years) - in her last years of life she would have mostly blind and deaf yet at the age of 100 she was probably the equivalent of a healthy and productive 60-70 year old. Compare that with well known evolutionary biologist SJ Gould who died at the age of 61 in 2002. An additional 50 years of productive life is, in effect, a doubling of adult life.

It is not difficult to appreciate that a treatment for aging is in effect a universal treatment for most serious diseases - those diseases are practically nonexistent in the young. This is a paradigm shift in how medicine should be practiced - proactively rather than reactively, correcting rather than repairing and eventually enhancing rather than correcting - and stands to face great resistance from the medical community whose methodology has been centered around guiding endogenous and innate healing processes - for as long as they are functioning

Prometheus - This is the precise and singular reason the Methuselah Foundation was founded. To kill many birds(diseases) with one stone. Health and longevity are the inevitable outcome - as you say.

"Goliath gets a headache - film at 11:00"
Dave

This is the precise and singular reason the Methuselah Foundation was founded.

That's strange. I had the impression it was all an elaborate marketing exercise..