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Summary of Transcript:
Aubrey deGray, Chief Science Officer at the SENS Research Foundation, talks about his unique approach to anti-aging gerontology. He believes that rather than slowing down the aging process, it’s easier to reverse aging by using a “divide and conquer” approach to turn back the aging clock. Initially, he faced pushback, but his ideas have gained more acceptance. DeGray emphasizes that he doesn’t think specifically about how long he wants to live but wants to make that decision himself. His belief in “longevity escape velocity” has political implications, as reversing aging could lead to indefinite life.
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Summary of Description:
Biologist and Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, Aubrey de Grey, is a pioneering technology that could allow individuals to choose how long they want to live by repairing the damage that aging does to the body. Rather than slowing down the aging process, de Grey’s approach is to restore the body’s biological age to 30 years younger by repairing the damage aging has caused. He breaks down the seven categories of damage that correspond to therapeutic repair methods, including stem cell therapy and breaking down waste to resolve diseases like Alzheimer’s. De Grey believes his breakthrough could result in indefinite life.
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The idea of living forever has always been a fascination for many people around the world. With the advancement of technology and science, it may be possible to achieve this goal. Aubrey de Grey, the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, is at the forefront of pioneering technology that could allow individuals to choose how long they want to live.
The concept introduced by de Grey revolves around repairing the damage that aging does to the body to reverse its biological age to roughly 30 years younger. While scientists have been trying to find a way to slow down the aging process, de Grey’s approach offers an entirely different direction. He explains that rather than slowing the aging process, repairing the damage done by age is better.
According to de Grey, the key to reversing aging is repairing the damage into seven categories, each corresponding to a therapeutic repair method. De Grey suggests that by improving the structure of cellular level function, stem cells could treat the loss of cell problems. Similarly, he explains how breaking down cellular waste could alleviate specific diseases like Alzheimer’s, macular degeneration, and excretion.
De Grey’s approach has received pushback from scientists who question the idea of reverse aging in biology. However, he explains that evolution does not care about old age but only about propagating genetic information. Thus, by using his method of repairing the damage, he could theoretically reverse the biological age of 30 years.
While living forever may sound exciting, de Grey gives a sobering guess about how close effective therapies are for lifespan extension. As technology advances, there may be more significant scientific breakthroughs that will continue to push the boundaries of the human lifespan. Nonetheless, the impact of de Grey’s work is monumental and offers a new perspective on how to tackle aging in the future.
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Source Description
Scientific breakthroughs are happening all around you. As technology advances, biologists such as the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, Aubrey de Grey, are leading the way to pioneering tech that will allow you to choose how long you want to live.
If you are familiar with my obsession with living forever, you already know how much this excites me. For years scientists have been trying to find a way to slow down the aging process. Still, Aubrey introduces the idea of repairing the damage that aging does on the body to theoretically restore the body’s biological age to maybe 30 years younger.
SHOW NOTES:
Quality of Life | Aubrey on why a long life depends on the quality and being invested in choice [0:58]
Reverse Aging | Why damage repair could be easier than slowing aging & the pushback met [4:40]
Indefinite Life | Aubrey on why the result of expected life for reversed aging could be dim [8:08]
Structure Repair | Landing on the idea of repairing structure to restore cellular level function [9:32]
Pushback | Aubrey on pushback among scientists about reverse aging in biology [11:17]
Body Damage | Aubrey on self-inflicted damage being changed to same level 30 years prior [14:13]
Longevity Escape Velocity | Aubrey on his theory of how to change biological age 30 years [16:26]
Types of Damage | 7 categories of damage that correspond to therapeutic methods of repair [21:18]
Stem Cell Therapy | Aubrey explains how stem cells could treat loss of cell problems [22:17]
Cancer Treatments | Aubrey gives a category of damage due to too many cells [23:26]
Senescent Cells | Aubrey explains how these cells can promote cancer [26:53]
Mitochondrial Mutations | Aubrey explains problems at the molecular level inside cells [28:53]
Cellular Waste | Aubrey breaks down how cellular waste over the years impacts old age [33:35]
Macular Degeneration | Aubrey explains specific enzymes that could prevent blindness [35:24]
Excretion | Aubrey explains diseases that could be resolved by breaking down waste [37:50]
Alzheimer’s | Breaking down amyloid as extracellular waste and modest benefit [39:22]
Advancing Therapies | Aubrey gives a sobering guess of how close effective therapies are [44:07]
QUOTES:
“I want to make sure that my choice about how long to live, and, of course, how high quality that life will be, is not progressively taken away from me by aging.” [2:24]
“Old age is something that evolution doesn’t care about at all. Evolution only cares about the propagation of genetic information.” [34:41]
“you’ve got to fix them all. You haven’t got to fix any of them perfectly. But you’ve got to fix them all pretty well.” [43:28]
“What excites me is typically the breakthroughs that would take me half an hour background to describe why it’s even important.” [46:16]
Guest Bio:
Dr. de Grey, the biomedical gerontologist, devised the SENS platform and established SENS Research Foundation to implement it. He received his BA in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Cambridge in 1985 and 2000, respectively. Dr. de Grey is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research and is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association
Follow Aubrey De Grey:
Website: https://www.sens.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aubreydegrey
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aubrey-de-grey-24260b/
Dive Deeper On Related Episodes:
Reset Your Age with David Sinclair https://youtu.be/IEz1P4i1P7s
Lifestyle For Longevity with Kellyann Petrucci https://youtu.be/l9QO0JlnU8w
Secrets To Longevity https://youtu.be/Ulm01gzU8r
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