Methuselah Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to life extension research, founded by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel, based in Springfield, Virginia, United States[1]. The foundation’s name comes from the biblical figure Methuselah, often used to describe a person who lives a very long time.
The foundation’s activities are carried out through projects:
My Bridge 4 Life – a social networking site for people with health problem,
Mprize – a cash prize for a person who significantly rejuvenates or extends the life of a mouse,
NewOrgan Prize,
various joint projects under the banner of MLife Sciences.
Current projects
NewOrgan Prize
The $10 million prize[4] is a challenge for scientists to make the production of organs from patient cells and their transplantation a reality by 2020. Announced in April 2010,[5] the prize will be awarded to the first scientist to make organ replication and transplantation a reality.
The foundation wants to put an end to the current state of affairs: waiting for the donor to die, rejecting the transplanted organ, limited lifespans with immunosuppressive drugs, and patients dying before they receive the necessary organ.[6] The foundation believes that offering prizes accelerates inventions.[7]
Mprize
In 2003, de Grey and Gobel founded the Mprize (also known as the Methuselah Mouse Prize), a prize designed to accelerate research into effective life extension by financially rewarding researchers who extend the healthy lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. (The normal lifespan of farm mice is 1.5–2 years, with some reaching 3 years.) De Grey commented on the establishment of the prize in March 2005: “If we are to bring about real regenerative therapies that will benefit not just future generations, but those of us who are alive today, we must encourage scientists to work on the problem of aging”[9]. The prize has been covered by many media outlets, including the BBC and Fortune.
The foundation believes that if the aging process can be reversed in mice, a huge amount of funding will be allocated to similar research in humans, perhaps funded by the government, like the Human Genome Project, or by private companies.
In August 2005, the prize was worth $1.5 million, in November 2005 – $3 million, and in December 2006 – $4 million.