Reporting Progress at the Methuselah Foundation
The Methuselah Foundation fills us in on progress to date: "We are currently sponsoring research in two of the seven strands of the SENS program; the preventing the harm caused by mitochondrial mutations (MitoSENS) and degrading damaging long-lived cellular debris (LysoSENS) ... our teams have already seen interesting results and are moving forward rapidly. ... When these projects began in the summer of 2005, there was no strong evidence to suggest that any enzymes or organisms degrading intracellular junk existed in nature [but] reseach volunteers had successfully cultured [7-ketocholesterol (7KC)] degraders before the end of 2005. ... 2006 saw further characterization of the 7KC degraders and corroboration of the results. In summer 2007, six undergraduate research assistants and one additional PhD candidate [helped] with synthesizing additional target compounds, such as A2E and CML (a major [advanced glycation end-product]). ... [today, researchers] are preparing to move them into a cell model of age-related macular degeneration for initial safety and efficacy testing. Various other projects [are] at earlier stages. Novel targets include artificial lipofuscin and the infamous glucosepane AGE-crosslink."
Link: http://blog.methuselahfoundation.org/2007/12/methuselah_foundation_newslett_1.html