Help the Immortality Institute Fund Research Into Laser Ablation of Lipofuscin

Fight Aging!

Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

I'm pleased to see that the Immortality Institute folk have set up an $8000 matching fund to help contribute to one line of research aimed at removing one cause of the damage of aging. This is exactly the sort of positive development enabled by falling costs in biotechnology - small groups of interested people can raise enough money to support meaningful early stage research:

In case you have not yet heard or read, the Immortality Institute is providing a matching grant for research into laser ablation of lipofuscin.
Read all about it here: http://www.imminst.org/archive/articles/laser-research-grant

Listen to Nason Schooler describe the proposed research here (2008), or here (2009)

I am particularly interested to see the results of the worm lifespan studies to confirm whether or not lipofuscin is one of the key pieces of cellular junk affecting the aging process. The funding drive will continue through August 17th. Please consider saving up a couple dollars to donate to this research project.

The SENS Foundation will be overseeing this research:

SENS Foundation is pleased to announce an initiative by the Immortality Institute, funding us in our fight against aging. The Institute will match every contribution up to $8,000 for the study of laser ablation of lipofuscin - research that will be conducted by Nason Schooler at the SENS Foundation Research Center.

Validating the use of lasers as an approach to remove the buildup of lipofuscin in our cells and thereby help long-term health and longevity won't cost much - a few tens of thousands of dollars. So give a little of your spare change to help move this research to its conclusion: it's a good bet, and supporting this per-project grassroots methodology of funding biotechnology research is also a good bet. If this one is well funded, we'll be seeing more diverse SENS research projects put forward and funded by the community in the future.