Rejuvenation biotechnologies are real and inevitable

Original author: Ariel VA Feinerman
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What is aging? We can define it as a process of accumulation of molecular and cellular damage resulting from normal metabolism. While researchers still have a poor understanding of how metabolic processes cause damage accumulation, and how accumulated damage causes pathology, the damage itself — the structural differences between old and young tissue — is very well classified and studied. Correcting damage and restoring the former - intact - youthful state of the body, we will really rejuvenate it! It sounds very promising, and so it is. And for some types of damage (for example, for senescent cells) it is shown that it works!

Today in our virtual studio somewhere between the cold, rainy St. Petersburg and the warm sunny Mountain View, we again meet Aubrey de Gray. For those of you who are not familiar with it, below is a brief summary.

Dr. Aubrey de Gray is a biomedical gerontologist who explores the idea of ​​negligible aging in humans and founded the SENS Research Foundation . He received a bachelor's degree in computer science and a doctorate in biology from the University of Cambridge in 1985 and 2000. Dr. de Gray is the Chief Editor of Rejuvenation Research, a member of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Association of Aging, and is a member of the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organizations. In 2011, de Gray inherited approximately $ 16.5 million from his mother. Of these, he allocated $ 13 million to finance SENS.

Note: If you have not read Ending Aging ( Russian version ) yet , I recommend you do this as soon as possible, and to be more comfortable with the ideas that we discuss below, I highly recommend that you read a brief introduction to the SENS study . Also, if you are interested in the latest news and reviews on aging and rejuvenation, the best place to look is Fight Aging!a blog. Finally, if you are an investor or just wondering, I recommend you take a look at Jim Mellon 's Juvenescence .

Fresh interview


Ariel Feinerman : Greetings, Dr. Aubrey de Gray!

Aubrey de Gray : Hello Ariel, thank you for inviting me to an interview.

Ariel Feinerman : How do you feel 2018 compared to 2017 or earlier? What changed?

Aubrey de Gray : 2018 was fantastic in anti-aging biotechnology. The main thing that made it special was the explosive growth of the private sector component - the number of startups, the number of investors and the scale of investments. Two companies, AgeX Therapeutics and Unity Biotechnology, became public, having received investments of hundreds of millions, and many others received only a little less. Of course, this became possible only thanks to the great progress made in real science, but you will never know in advance when this slow, unhurried progress will reach a “critical mass”.

Ariel Feinerman : In 2017, your SENS fund received approximately $ 7 million in donations. How did you spend them?

Aubrey de Gray : Almost all of this money we received at the end of 2017 in the form of four donations in cryptocurrency of about $ 1 million or more for a total of about $ 6.5 million. Of course, we realized that this was a one-time case, so we did not spend it all at once! The main thing that we did, we started a new major project at Albert Einstein Medical Collegeaimed at treating Alzheimer's with stem cells , and expanded our educational initiative to include adult scientists. You will find more information on our website and in press releases.

Ariel Feinerman : Which breakthroughs of 2018 are the most important in your opinion?

Aubrey de Gray : As for science, our funded work, I would choose our progress in an attempt to get the mitochondrial genes moved into the nucleus to work. We published a great work.in 2016, but to be honest, I was not at all sure that we could quickly get new successes. I am pleased to inform you that my fears were in vain, and that we have made great strides in this direction. The publication will be soon.

Ariel Feinerman : You say that many anti-aging therapies will work in clinical trials over five years. Given that many of them are already working in clinical trials or even in the clinic (for example, immunotherapy , cell and gene therapies ), do you mean the first - perhaps incomplete - anti-aging panel when you talk about the early 2020s?

Aubrey de Gray: In general, right. SENS is based on the principle of "divide and conquer", so we can consider it as three intersecting phases. The first step is to accept the basic concept and begin its implementation. The second stage is to make the most complex components work. And the third step is to combine the components. The first phase is pretty much complete, as you indicated. The second phase has just begun. The third phase is likely to begin in only a few years. That's why I still think that by 2035 or so we will only have a 50% chance of getting the Logevity Escape Velocity .

Ariel Feinerman : Many investors are still afraid to finance real regenerative medicine. For example, pharmaceutical companies using small moleculessuch as Unity Biotechnology, which received more than $ 300 million, is much more beloved by investors than real bioengineering companies, such as Oisin Biotechnologies , which received less than $ 4 million, despite the fact that biological methods are much more powerful, cheap, effective and safe! Why, in your opinion, and when will we see the change?

Aubrey de Gray : I see no problem. The necessary changes in thinking have already taken place: rejuvenation is real and inevitable. It is only natural that small molecules lead in rejuvenation, for this is what pharmaceutical companies already know how to do. Many methods will eventually be replaced by more complex biological ones. Sometimes small molecules work really well! In general, all is well.

Ariel Feinerman: Do you agree that the use of small molecules is not correct in a future anti-aging panel? They have many shortcomings - especially their main mechanism of work through interference in human metabolism. In contrast, biological methods were originally developed metabolically inert - since they simply eliminate accumulated damage, they do not need to interfere with metabolism. Therefore, it is much easier than usual to avoid side effects and interactions with other treatment methods. They simply repair key damage, which means they are easier to develop and test - and they are much safer!

Aubrey de Gray: Ah, no, too simplistic understanding. It is not true that small molecules always just “interfere with the metabolism”, and gene and enzyme therapies repair damage. Small molecules that selectively kill senescent cells are an example of SENS-esque damage repair; and the only thing against them is that, as a rule, it is more difficult to eliminate side effects, but not because of their mechanisms of action, but because of their low selectivity.

Ariel Feinerman : Many countries have shown green light to regenerative medicine. For example, fast-track approval in Japan, which allows the use of new methods of treatment if they have shown their safety. A similar approach works in Russia. What about the EU and the US?

Aubrey de Gray: We still have a long way to go, but the regulatory situation in the West is moving in the right direction. The TAME clinical trial paved the way for articulating aging as the goal of clinical trials, and WHO has found a very well-thought-out way to incorporate aging into its classification.

Ariel Feinerman : Are you planning any work with the US Army? As we know, they conduct regeneration research and are very interested in keeping soldiers healthy longer. They also have good funding!

Aubrey de Gray : The Department of Defense has funded a lot of research in regenerative medicine over the years. I am sure that they will continue to do so.

Ariel Feinerman: Is there any progress in the OncoSENS program? Did you find the ALT genes? Are there any studies on WILT ?

Aubrey de Gray : No - in the end, the program was not successful, so we closed it. Currently, there is more interest in ALT in other laboratories than in the past, so I hope that progress will be made. But one of the reasons why I think that everything is fine is success in cancer immunotherapy. I believe that there is a good chance that in the end WILT will be unnecessary because we will defeat cancer using the immune system.

Ariel Fainerman : Spiegel Lab recently posted information that they have found three enzymes capable of destroying glyukozepan. Very interesting information! When can we hear more about their program? Revel LLC is a very secretive company.

Aubrey de Gray : They are not secretive at all, they just started the registration of the company.

Ariel Feinerman : When can we see the first clinical trial of glucoseepane-destroying enzymes?

Aubrey de Gray : I believe that two years is a reasonable forecast, but this is just a forecast.

Ariel Feinerman : What is your opinion on the Open Source principle in anti-aging biotechnology? The computer revolution in the early 2000s occurred only because Open Source caused an explosion in software development!

We have many examples where pharmaceutical companies buy a small company that has technology patents and then closes all programs. In the Open Source approach, you cannot “close” any technology, and anyone can contribute by improving the protocol, and anyone can use it without any license fee!

In any case, there are countries in which you cannot protect your patents. Isn't it better to make technology open from the start?

Famous biohacker Josiah Zayner said:“In the world of gene therapy, most treatments are easy to copy because you can reconstruct DNA from research papers or patents. I can give the same exact treatment, the same purity and quality to anyone who has been thrown out of a clinical trial. Price? Hundreds or several thousand dollars maximum. The same goes for immunotherapy. ”

Aubrey de Gray : I believe that you have largely answered your question with this quote. Anti-aging biotechnology is not easy to limit or ban.

Ariel Feinerman : Does SENS plan to launch new programs in 2019?

Aubrey de Gray : Of course! But we still decide which ones. We believe that our conference in Berlin ( Undoing Aging , March 28-30) will allow us to make a better decision.

Ariel Feinerman : What are your plans for 2019?

Aubrey de Gray : I would say that I plan to travel less, but this seems unlikely now. In fact, my goal is just to continue - to do everything possible to support the growth of developing biotechnology.

Ariel Feinerman : Thank you very much for your answers, hope to see you again!

Aubrey de Gray : Mutually!

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