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Comment by jules | Hacker News Reader

What are the results of his research or related research? How much money does he think he'll need to meet his goal?

You might look at the mitochondrial work which recently focused on Corral-Debrinski's lab as the most likely prospect for getting the job done. A brief outline is at the end of this page:

http://www.sens.org/sens-research/research-themes/mitosens

and you can look at Corral-Debrinski's breakthrough here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18771762

Basically it's now shown possible to move a mitochondrial gene into the nucleus and then have the proteins produced pushed back to the mitochondria for use. When done for the 13 important mitochondrial genes whose mutation damages us, then this will make it possible completely remove their contribution to aging.

There is good reason to think that this is a large contribution.

Context:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/10/how-age-damaged-m...

How much money: $1 billion over ten years to implement SENS fully in mice. Incremental amounts obtain incremental progress.

How much of that money has been donated already? i.e. how much more is needed?

It's interesting stuff. It makes me wonder whether I should be studying biology :)

I don't know how much SENS Foundation has raised since it diverged from the Methuselah Foundation. For the period prior to that, you can look at the Methuselah Foundation records:

http://www.mfoundation.org/?pn=mj_donations_funding

http://www.mfoundation.org/?pn=donors

These are just ("just") a few millions - though I'm sure the folk reading HN will appreciate how much work went into raising those funds for a visionary project. By any account, a grand success in putting forward a new idea and bringing on board people who think the same way. Like all grand successes, it's the first step on a much longer path.

(You may or may not know that one of the largest donors is Peter Thiel).

In essence, SENS is still looking for the big hit, the scale up to mid-7-figures. By donating modestly now you add your name to hundreds of others who have already stepped up to help make the ramp needed for that goal.

Another line of research that has been progressing since the early days of fundraising (because it was cheap to get started) is the search for bacterial enzymes that can break down the gunk that builds up in your cells with age, and as a consequence destroys the cellular garbage-collection mechanisms. You might have heard of lipofuscin and its effects on autophagy, for example:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/12/lysosomal-activit...

The links at the bottom of this page outline progress to date - some potential enzymes are found, which could feed into a larger scale project to develop them if funding arrives:

http://www.sens.org/sens-research/research-themes/lysosens

Meanwhile, small scale funding can keep people working on screening bacteria for more enzymes to break down more types of chemical gunk that cause your cellular systems to fail with advancing age.

"How much money does he think he'll need to meet his goal?"

That question doesn't make a lot of sense. This is not a Web 2.0 startup. It's a lot more fundamental than that, and a lot of the required tools and technologies have not been invented yet - that's what they are trying to do.

Of course, but he should be able to give a ballpark figure. Are we talking about millions, billions or trillions?

afaik, in the millions. Mostly, once enough progress has been made, the money should pour in because people will now know it's possible and demand it.

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