First Four Teams of world renowned scientists answer starting gun for competion to win the Methusela

Added : ( Thu Sep 25 2003 )

Methuselah Foundation




Company Information:
Methuselah Foundation
9131 Stone Garden Drive
Lorton, VA 22079
Fairfax
Ph. 202-306-0989
Fx. 202-429-2015
david.gobel@dhs.gov





FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Four Teams of world renowned scientists answer starting gun for competition to win the Methuselah Mouse Prize
Serious race to Postpone and Reverse Human Aging begins

WASHINGTON, DC/EWORLDWIRE/September NN, 2003 --- The first four teams of world renowned scientists have announced their entry into the competition for the Methuselah Mouse Prize by registering with the Methuselah Foundation, which takes its name from the man reputed in Biblical records to have lived the longest in human history (969 years).

The "Methuselah Mouse" Prize (MMP) is designed to stimulate serious anti-aging research and intervention leading eventually to aging so slow that it is not measurable.

To compete for the Methuselah Mouse Prize, each team must secure their own financing from government, commercial or private sources. The prize is structured as a series where many winners are expected, each leap frogging the other as the ages of the mice grow longer and longer…all along the way, serious, repeatable research of significant value to reversing human aging will be discovered and applied.

The first winner of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, Dr. Andrzej Bartke was announced in Baltimore on June 3rd for the mouse that lived nearly 5 years – around 180 – 200 years in human terms His team discovered the surprising effect of gene modifications on the mouse’s lifespan. Future awards will acknowledge living mice that surpass the previous "age goal post" established by the first pioneering prize recipient” said Aubrey de Grey, architect of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, and Senior Science Advisor to the Methuselah Foundation.

The Methuselah Mouse competition, the first-ever life extension competition, follows in the footsteps of historical prizes which prove that the impossible can be done thru the right incentives, human genius and the support of visionary financiers. From the Longitude Prize of 1714 to find longitude at sea, to the Orteig Prize that moved Lindbergh to fly the Atlantic – to the X Prize to incent private space transportation, performance prizes have a near 100% track record of solving near impossible problems in unexpectedly short timeframes.

Said Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the world famous X Prize – “In 1995 the X Prize started as an idea with no competitors and $5,000 seed money. Today, after only 7 years, we are offering a $10 million purse and have 25 teams from seven nations actively competing to be the first to jump-start the private space renaissance. I fully expect a similar outcome awaits the Methuselah Foundation and its prize to extend the healthy adult lifespan. That is why I have decided to personally support the Methuselah Foundation’s vision. It’s in everyone’s enlightened self-interest to help our lifespan achieve “escape velocity”!

Team Profiles:

Rich Miller has worked extensively in recent years on mice derived recently from the wild. These mice tend to live considerably longer than normal laboratory-bred mice, indicating that one effect of
The Miller Laboratory

breeding mice for hundreds of generations in captivity has been to make them shorter-lived (at least in the normal lab environment). His work on these mice focuses on discovering how wild mice differ
from normal lab mice genetically, so as to determine which genetic pathways are most important in determining mammalian lifespan.

Rick Weindruch has focused throughout his career on the phenomenon of life extension by caloric restriction (CR). Since his doctoral work in the laboratory of CR pioneer Roy Walford, he has explored


the role of oxidative damage in driving the aging process and the ways in which this damage is resisted by the metabolic changes that CR brings about. He has mainly focused on the role of mitochondrial electron transport (oxidative phosphorylation) as the source and mediator of such damage.

Christian Sell and his group at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research
have created a set of 30 mice, called "midi" mice, which carry two copies of a mutation that reduces the amount of an important protein named IGF-1. IGF-1 is a "growth factor", a protein that promotes cell division and enlargement of tissues and of the whole body. Several other genetic modifications of related genes in mice have caused large increases in lifespan -- indeed, the mouse that won the inaugural prize had such a mutation, though in a different gene. Shortly, Dr. Sell's group will produce mice with even lower levels of IGF-1 production, by replacing one of the mutant copies with a version that makes no protein at all. (It is not possible to replace both copies with this non-producing mutation -- such mice die before birth because they cannot grow.)

Dr. Richard Cutler and his colleagues are applying the idea that simple genetic changes could have a large impact on lifespan, by investigating how to up-regulate many of the genes involved in controlling "oxidative stress" status -- the extent to which cells and tissues are constantly bombarded with free radicals, toxic molecules produced as a side-effect of using oxygen. These genes include the thioredoxin redox regulating system and the antioxidant response element (ARE) controlling an array of "phase II" proteins (proteins that are produced by cells when they sense elevated oxidative stress). Dr. Cutler is developing transgenic and pharmaceutical means to enhance expression of such systems to achieve a dramatic decrease in cellular oxidative stress. If this works they will then test the mice for lifespan enhancement.


A cash prize will be awarded in two categories. A Postponement Prize will go to the producer of the world's oldest ever mouse, restricted to the species used in laboratory work, Mus musculus, in recognition of extending healthy lifespan. Starting a year from now, a Reversal Prize will also be awarded to the producer of the world's oldest mouse whose life was extended due to effective late-onset life-extension interventions. Each prize will be awarded from a fund to which everyone who might be aging is encouraged to contribute, initially $5,000 for each prize; the amount won depends on the margin by which the previous record has been broken.

David Gobel, President of the Methuselah Foundation, explains, "The Methuselah Mouse Prize is meant to inspire and encourage serious scientific progress and innovation in extending the healthy human lifespan. We believe the Methuselah Mouse Prize can effectively raise public optimism and enthusiasm about potential human application of successful life-extending interventions used on laboratory mice that have already reached an advanced age."

The Methuselah Foundation also intends to promote public interest and involvement in mammalian life extension research by accepting public donations for future prizes along with corporate sponsorships.

Current prize donors/sponsors are the Methuselah Foundation, HMX Inc., The Maximum Life Foundation, The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, The Longevity Meme, Diana Stackhouse of the Animal Health Institute and many others. The prize fund has more than quadrupled in just three months!

For more information about The Methuselah Mouse Prize, the competing teams and how to contribute to the prize fund see www.methuselahmouse.org or contact David Gobel at The Methuselah Foundation via e-mail at david.gobel@methuselahmouse.org

CONTACT: David Gobel
202 306 0989
david.gobel@methuselahmouse.org
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