SENS Foundation Address at the Breakthrough Philanthropy Meeting
From Mike Kope, SENS Foundation CEO: "Last night, Peter Thiel hosted 'Breakthrough Philanthropy', a dinner and presentation event showcasing eight non-profit organizations focused upon game-changing approaches to their fields. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to convey our message to a large group of entrepreneurs and philanthropists interested in the genuinely transformative. Our thanks to the Thiel Foundation, and the Seasteading Institute, for their efforts in creating that event. Here are my remarks from the presentation. ... We've gotten very good at conquering infectious diseases. None of you will suffer from polio, or smallpox, or, likely, measles or diptheria. But the truth is, we haven't extended that kind of success to the problems of aging. You will know someone suffering from cancer, from Alzheimer's, from Parkinson's disease. We haven't yet eradicated a single, major age-related disease. This is despite great advances in therapeutics, despite trillions in research underway around the globe, and despite the brightest minds working in an entire, thirty year long biotech revolution. Ten years ago, our CSO Aubrey de Grey first suggested … a slightly different revolution. His core idea was a damage repair model called SENS, and a recognition of a simple problem: when medical science focuses upon disease - when we wait for disease to develop - then what we learn is how to chase the pathology - and we haven't gotten very good at that. But if we look instead at the damage building up as a result of the normal metabolism of being alive, then we can learn to repair that damage before those deadly pathologies develop. That's it; that's all that SENS means: it's a model that steps away from the expensive and tangled 'pathology chase' and focuses instead upon identifying, addressing and removing the damage that is building up inside you; the damage that will eventually cause disease."
I think you're doing a great job and every year past people will wake up for this idea that is possible to defeat aging.