|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
Want to support Global Action on Aging? Click below: Thanks!
|
 |
Scientists
Target Ageing S THE search for the elixir of life
has become respectable. A Cambridge University conference will announce
this month an international scientific competition to solve the secrets of
ageing. The
launch of the prize reflects a significant shift in scientific thinking.
Until a decade ago, the idea that the ageing process could be slowed or
reversed would have been dismissed as science fiction. Later
this month, however, researchers from across the world will gather in
Cambridge to discuss research that many believe will result in average
human lifespans being increased to 130 years or more within decades. Aubrey
de Grey of Cambridge University's genetics department, organiser of the
International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, is optimistic. "Researchers
have already succeeded in dramatically prolonging the lives of some animal
species, including mammals, and there is every reason to think the same
can eventually be done for humans," Dr de Grey says. Under
the rules of the contest, scientific teams will compete to make laboratory
mice live longer. Dr de Grey has named the project the Methuselah Mouse
contest after the biblical character who lived for 969 years. Earlier
this year research published by Andrzej Bartke of the Southern Illinois
school of medicine described how he had kept a mouse alive for almost five
years -- the equivalent of a human living for about 200 years. Professor
Bartke altered a gene controlling the animal's response to growth hormone,
which meant it had reduced levels of insulin and glucose in its blood. The
change appeared to protect its DNA from age-related decay. Cash
prizes in the form of research funding will be awarded to successful
contestants. The researchers will have to keep their mice alive for five
years at first, but the eventual aim is to increase that to nine years or
more. David
Gobel, the businessman working with Dr de Grey on the contest, said they
had secured backing worth tens of thousands of dollars and were attracting
keen interest from pharmaceutical companies and other big corporate
backers. "Some
of the world's best researchers into ageing have signed up because they
believe this is now scientifically possible," Mr Gobel said. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
|
