SENS Foundation
Encyclopedia
The SENS Foundation is a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 co-founded by Michael Kope, Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging and co-author...

, Jeff Hall, Sarah Marr and Kevin Perrott, which is based in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its activities include SENS-based research programs and public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 work for the acceptance of and interest in scientific rejuvenation research. Before the Foundation was launched in March 2009, the SENS research program was mainly pursued by the Methuselah Foundation
Methuselah Foundation
The Methuselah Foundation studies methods of extending lifespan. It is a non-profit 501 volunteer organization, co-founded by Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel, which is based in Springfield, Virginia, United States...

, co-founded by Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel
David Gobel
David Gobel is an American author, CEO, entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist.-Career:David Gobel is Chief Executive Officer of the . Working with Dr. Aubrey de Grey, he founded the original non-profit in 2000 which became the Methuselah Foundation, in an effort to reverse or preempt the damage of...

.

Goals

The foundation's stated goal is "to develop, promote and ensure widespread access to rejuvenation biotechnologies which comprehensively address the disabilities and diseases of aging"; It defines "rejuvenation biotechnologies" as "the application of regenerative medicine – defined to include the repair of living cells and extracellular material in situ – to the diseases and disabilities of aging." Its aims to achieve this by accelerating the various research programs that go together to make the SENS project, by sponsoring university research, and prioritizing those aspects of SENS that are not adequately funded by other means.

SENS Research

From his biogerontology work, de Grey believes there to be seven categories of cellular damage that constitute agedness, or as he puts it, "the set of accumulated side effects from metabolism
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

 that eventually kills us,"
all of which are reversible.
In order to repair each type of aging damage, de Grey has also developed seven intervention strategies.
Seven types of aging damage and SENS solutions:

  1. Cell loss and cell atrophy
    Atrophy
    Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include mutations , poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply to the target organ, disuse or lack of exercise or disease intrinsic to the tissue itself...

     — Stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...

    s and tissue engineering
    Tissue engineering
    Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions...

     ("RepleniSENS")
  2. Nuclear [epi]mutations — WILT, short for "Whole-body Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres" ("OncoSENS")
  3. Mitochondrial mutations — Allotopic expression
    Allotopic expression
    Allotopic expression refers to expression from the nuclear genome of genes that normally are expressed only from the mitochondrial genome. Biomedically engineered AE has been suggested as a possible future tool in gene therapy of certain mitochondria-related diseases , however this view is...

     of 13 proteins ("MitoSENS")
  4. Death-resistant cells — Targeted removal ("ApoptoSENS")
  5. Extracellular
    Extracellular
    In cell biology, molecular biology and related fields, the word extracellular means "outside the cell". This space is usually taken to be outside the plasma membranes, and occupied by fluid...

     crosslinks — AGE-breaking molecules and tissue engineering ("GlycoSENS")
  6. Extracellular
    Extracellular
    In cell biology, molecular biology and related fields, the word extracellular means "outside the cell". This space is usually taken to be outside the plasma membranes, and occupied by fluid...

     aggregates — Stimulating of the immune system
    Immune system
    An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...

     to clear out the aggregates ("AmyloSENS")
  7. Intracellular
    Intracellular
    Not to be confused with intercellular, meaning "between cells".In cell biology, molecular biology and related fields, the word intracellular means "inside the cell".It is used in contrast to extracellular...

     aggregates — Equipping the lysosome
    Lysosome
    thumb|350px|Schematic of typical animal cell, showing subcellular components. [[Organelle]]s: [[nucleoli]] [[cell nucleus|nucleus]] [[ribosomes]] [[vesicle |vesicle]] rough [[endoplasmic reticulum]]...

     with enzymes capable of degrading the aggregates ("LysoSENS")


The Foundation is currently funding projects in LysoSENS, MitoSENS, and OncoSENS.

As of March 2009, over $6 million in donations have been pledged for SENS research.

Staff

The founders of the SENS Foundation:
  • Michael Kope, Co-Founder : Chief Executive Officer
  • Aubrey de Grey, Co-Founder : Chief Science Officer
  • Jeff Hall, Co-Founder : VP Research Operations
  • Sarah Marr, Co-Founder : VP Development and Communications
  • Kevin Perrott, Co-Founder : Board Member


Board of Directors:
  • Barbara J. Logan : Chair
  • Kevin Dewalt : Board Member
  • Bill Liao : Board Member
  • Kevin Perrott, Co-Founder : Board Member


Other key staff members:
  • Maria Entraigues: Volunteer Coordinator
  • Tyler James: Interim Academic Coordinator (Academic Initiative)
  • Tanya Jones: Research Operations Manager (Research Center)

Donors and volunteers

On September 16, 2006, Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...

, co-founder and former CEO of the online payments system PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....

, announced that he is pledging $3.5 million to the Methuselah Foundation "to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging" (SENS research).
Justin Bonomo
Justin Bonomo
Justin Bonomo is an American professional poker player who was a sponsored member of Team Bodog until January 2010. -Poker:...

, professional poker player, has pledged 5% of his tournament winnings for SENS research.
Sam Harris
Sam Harris (author)
Sam Harris is an American author, and neuroscientist, as well as the co-founder and current CEO of Project Reason. He received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA...

, a prominent nonfiction writer and scientific skeptic, is a Methuselah Mouse Prize 300 member.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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