CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 17, 2016 — A gene that scientific dogma insists is inactive in adults actually plays a vital role in preventing the underlying cause of most heart attacks and strokes, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined. The discovery opens a new avenue for battling those deadly conditions, and it raises the tantalizing prospect that doctors could use the gene to prevent or delay at least some of the effects of aging.

“Finding a way to augment the expression of this gene in adult cells may have profound implications for promoting health and possibly reversing some of the detrimental effects with aging,” said researcher Gary K. Owens, PhD, director of UVA’s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center.

Unexpected Protective Effect

New MMTP Interview on Fightaging! discussing longevity, advocacy and the urgent need to support research!

By way of following on from today’s AMA over at /r/futurology, I recently had the chance to ask a few questions of the Major Mouse Testing Program (MMTP) volunteers, a mix of scientists and advocates who aim to do their part to speed up progress towards effective treatments for the causes of aging. The group formed six months ago or so, and are presently seeking funds for their first mouse studies through crowdfunding with the Lifespan.io organization. The initial focus is on senolytic treatments capable of removing senescent cells from old tissues. I encourage you all to take a look at the details of their research proposal.

Growth in the number of dysfunctional, senescent cells is a contributing cause of degenerative aging, involved in the progression and pathology of all of the common age-related diseases. A growing body of evidence supports the outright removal approach as a way to minimize or eliminate this portion of the aging process. Unfortunately there is — as ever in the aging research field — a paucity of funding and always the need for more and better animal data in order to pull in other players with deep pockets. At this stage in the progression from laboratory to clinic, prior to the involvement of any large institutions or companies, all such efforts are important work. I’m pleased to have been able to contribute to this Major Mouse Testing Program fundraiser, and hope to see great things from this group in the future.

How did the Major Mouse Testing Program come about? How did you meet and what made you decide to undertake this particular project?

Elena: I have been collaborating with the International Longevity Alliance (ILA) for about 3 years. It is an international non-for-profit organization with the head office in Paris, our goal is to support innovative biomedical technologies to address aging. At the beginning, the core team had a lot of discussions with other pro-longevity organizations and with the scientific community to identify the bottlenecks that impede the development of the technologies to slow down, postpone and reverse age-related damage to health. And we learned that one of the barriers was the deficiency in robust animal trials for a long list of promising interventions. Then one of the Founding Board Members, Edouard Debonneuil, came in with the idea that the ILA could start its own fundraising project to support this kind of research. This is how MMTP was started.

On Reddit Futurology today!

The Major Mouse Testing Program is an ambitious project of the International Longevity Alliance, featuring an international team of scientists and advocates testing therapies against aging decline. This experiment is is lead by world class stem cell researcher Dr Alexandra Stolzing and was inspired by our scientific advisor and colleague Dr Aubrey De Grey.

The Major Mouse Testing Program is seeking to speed up scientific progress in the field of regenerative medicine and bio-gerontology. After ILA experts conducted an analysis of delays preventing the development of life extension technologies, it was shown that a serious problem was the lack of robust animal data for the potential of different compounds to promote health and extend maximum lifespan. Without this data promising interventions cannot enter clinical trials and become available to the general public.

The MMTP is currently running a crowdfunding campaign at https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/the-major-mouse-testing-program/

Check out LEAF President Keith Comito explain the origin of Lifespan.io and why crowdfunding research to extend healthy lifespan is both important and exciting.

Our current campaign is here: https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/the-major-mouse-testing-program/ and there will be more to follow soon! Connect with us on social media and subcribe on YouTube to stay informed. #CrowdfundTheCure #LifespanIO

LEAF President Keith Comito explains the origin of Lifespan.io — a crowdfunding platform specifically for biomedical research aimed at extending healthy human lifespan. Learn more, and help us Crowdfund the Cure for Aging: https://www.lifespan.io

Monday May 16th 17:00 GMT 13:00 EST 10:00 PST r/futurology.

The Major Mouse Testing Program is an ambitious project of the International Longevity Alliance, seeking to speed up scientific progress in the field of regenerative medicine and bio-gerontology. After ILA experts conducted an analysis of bottlenecks preventing the development of life extension technologies, it was revealed that one of these bottlenecks is the deficiency of robust animal data for the potential of different compounds to promote health and extend maximum lifespan. Without this data promising interventions cannot enter clinical trials and become available to the general public.

The ILA decided to initiate a fundraising program to fund a series of these high-risk studies: Major Mouse Testing Program. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign for the first experiment to test a combination of Senolytics. They have been shown to help seek out and destroy senescent “death resistant” cells and improve various aspects of health. We wish to see if Senolytics are able increase maximum lifespan in addition to healthspan promotion. We have big plans for the future with combination testing of senolytics, stem cells and more to help speed up scientific progress. So go ahead ASK US ANYTHING!