According to Aubrey de Gray, the body is a machine. Just as a classic car can mark a century in excellent condition, in the future we will be able to maintain the maintenance of the cellular components of our body in order to prevent diseases associated with aging and live long and healthy.
Di Gray is the co-founder and chief research officer of the SENS Research Foundation, as well as a participant in the Exponential Medicine Conference at the University of Singularity - an event dedicated to the impact of technology on health. For example, inexpensive genome sequencing, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, gene therapy, and others.
Speaking to the conference participants recently, Di Gray noted that the biggest problem in the study of aging today is not in technology, but rather in the wrong prioritization and shift of focus. Details of the conference can be found on SingularityHub.
Most approaches to age-related diseases involve symptom management. All of them are aimed at increasing life expectancy and alleviating symptoms, but since the treatment interferes with the finely tuned systems of the body, side effects manifest themselves, and in general the results leave much to be desired. Why?
“Aging is a side effect of life, first and foremost,” says di Gray.
Metabolic processes give us the opportunity to live, but also inevitably damage cells. Self-healing mechanisms of the body can not keep up with everything. In the end, damage collected in the process of life causes the familiar signs of aging: thinning of the skin, blurred eyes, muscle weakness, heart disease, and cognitive impairment.
Dee Gray is known for his research in the field of negligible aging. Negligible aging is a term that is used to describe some animals that do not display signs of aging. Dee Gray is confident that we can use biotechnology to bring negligible aging into human life, and for this reason seriously believes in SENS, being a co-founder of the foundation.
SENS focuses on seven categories of universal damage that contribute to aging. These include cell loss and reduced cell replacement efficiency in the muscles, heart, and brain; uncontrolled cell division (cancer); accumulation of toxins produced by defective mitochondria (cellular power plants); accumulation of non-working cells; tissue stiffness (such as arterial); accumulation of extracellular and intracellular debris.
We have a lot to learn about each of the categories, but everyone has something in common - they are natural products of body life; in small quantities they are all harmless. If their growth is not stopped, the accumulated "garbage" will cause a number of diseases.
Di Gray claims that we have known about the main causes of aging for decades, and after many years of research, little has changed. Now the challenge is to use the accumulated knowledge and take action. Dee Gray says that for each of the seven categories of aging there are common treatments, both available and those that are in development.
Examples include stem cell therapies to reverse cell loss and Alzheimer's medicine to cleanse the brain of amyloid plaques. These areas are well funded, but not all. Di Gray’s organization plans to turn to forgotten areas of research in the field of negligible aging.
Of course, the fight against aging is a very ambitious task. But Di Gray has personal motives. Diseases of old age are universal - getting rid of each of them will allow you to cope with diseases in general. Nonetheless, di Gray faced a number of contradictions.
In 2005, MIT Technology Review announced a reward of $ 20,000 for paper work, refuting SENS scientific achievements. A panel of judges appointed to read the works concluded that no one succeeded in refuting. Dee Gray convincingly defended SENS. In general, the work of the fund has remained more intriguing than discredited.
General skepticism, in principle, does not surprise anyone.
Even though progress in the study of age-related diseases gives fruit and shows perspectives, it goes slowly and encounters serious problems. The failures in the clinical trials of Alzheimer's drugs have shown that they cleanse the brain of amyloid plaques, but do not improve cognitive function or slow down degradation.
Dee Gray says that you can not expect impressive results, working only in one area - you need to work immediately in all. For example, in addition to plaques outside the cells, Alzheimer is thought to originate from intracellular protein debris. In addition, by the time patients begin to exhibit behavioral symptoms, a significant portion of the brain is already dead.
In the end, SENS still needs to be proven. But this is a scientific goal. Hypotheses should be studied and proved. Nathan Mirvold, former CEO of Microsoft and a judge of the Tech Review, designed it beautifully, saying the following:
“We must remember that all hypotheses go through a stage when one or several researchers doubt the ideas of others, while the most radical ideas turn out to be true. This is a distinctive feature of the scientific process. Radical ideas can be true. The most significant discoveries in science were accomplished as exceptions. ”
Although the di Gray Foundation attracts experts from research institutes around the world, it also needs funding. Funding, not technology, is the narrowest bottleneck.
Many forces are thrown on studies of life expectancy. All solve this problem in different ways. In the end, one day the movement will pick up a critical mass and generate an effective cycle of breakthroughs. On the other hand, aging can remain a tough nut that is hard to break. Over the next 30 years, in the opinion of not only Gray, but also other futurologists, there is a 50 percent chance that we will increase the life expectancy of years by 30. A child who will live 120 years is already born.
It is unlikely that anyone will celebrate the 200th anniversary in the next 100 years, but in these 100 years everything can happen. And, most likely, will happen.
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