Age Theory: Aubrey de Grey at TEDxUChicago 2012

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist. As the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation (a foundation working to develop widespread access to rejuvenation biotechnologies), author of numerous journal articles and books, and board member of a handful of editorial and scientific advisory boards, it is incontestable that Dr. Aubrey de Grey has dedicated his life to the science of combating the aging process. He received his BA and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, however, his original field was computer science.
Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations. He has appeared on countless shows, was even featured in the Max Wexler documentary, How to Live Forever, and has also spoken at a number of world-renowned events, including TED.

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[rdsquare]

Aubrey de Grey's presentations are always very inspiring and give us hope that radically increased lifespans really are achievable.

[Lastindependentthinker]

I don't know how long I want to live? but I do know I want to get up each morning in a healthy state. and i'm happy with my current life for the time being in my little corner of the world.

[darksupersonic]

I'm glad that Aubrey is saying that the longer life is an side effect, becuse when we have the power to live a 1, 000 years or so hopfully were ready for it.

[halneufmille]

I think he wouldn't disagree that it could be problematic if it went on forever. What he typically answers is that he focuses on the most critical damages that ultimately cause diseases, like cancer. When the most pressing damage is fixed, we have time enough to think about everything else.

[ThinkingSpeck]

Depending on exactly what you mean by "extracellular signaling", it's covered by mitochondrial mutations, intracellular junk or extracellular junk. Epigenetic mutations are covered by cancer and mitochondrial mutations.

You're basically asserting that we need to understand metabolism in order to reverse aging. Aubrey's point is that that's not necessary - we just need to fix the damage, which is far simpler.

You're welcome to ask me more detailed questions.

[summa]

yeah yt is not totally suitable for this kinda of back and fourth discussion.
anyways i just wanted to get at that there is more then meets the eye.

i think metabolism is not necessary for damages to happen, such as abnormal gene expression, it still occurs. and effects the cell signaling, which also could change cellular phenotypes to be expressed as aged cells.

[bogipepper]

I wish that this talk would have included vitamins, minerals, enzymes and pH levels that would be helpful to mitigate the damage from ongoing metabolism. Looking beyond the Forrest for the trees in mice test tube cells might pass up our human specific keys to attaining the gerontological goals.

[ThinkingSpeck]

I agree that these challenges are still complex, albeit markedly less so than metabolism itself.

I think "aged cells" is problematic, since most cells are quite short-lived. If we're talking about aging, then short-lived structures (including most cells) are insignificant - it doesn't matter if they become corrupted, because they are soon destroyed anyway.

I also have read quite a lot on this. I repeat that we do not need to understand metabolism in order to reverse aging.

[summa]

i think more so the gene expression, and abnormal cell communication,
metabolic damage becomes a consequence of that. it gets complicated because this gets into areas of systems biology.

[summa]

what about abnormal changes in extracellular signalling and epigenetics,
should be listed as one of those damages

[aliveever]

Let's see how many excuses for death we hear in these comments. Death has no excuses. It is actually a religious left over thinking to give excuses for death (even for atheists). It is the most profound and fundamental right of humans to want immortality and listen well, we are not talking about gods giving this to us but achieving this by science and technology, so it is not wishful thinking but a challenging but achievable goal. Plus it is unavoidable, it is a matter of when not if.

[summa]

you would have to understand all the cellular signaling that is involved in the body (including epigenetic and biophotonic) in order to repair the systems back to functionality,
in my opinion you would need way more advanced understanding of the body, and technologies such as computing, involved. Bioinformatics of the entire machine.

[summa]

well fixing damages i get, but how can you really fix something you don't understand fully?

[summa]

even biophotonics which science is just starting to learn has a role in biology.

[ThinkingSpeck]

Full answer's too big for YT, so here's an example instead:

Alzheimer's seems to be caused by beta amyloid proteins, but there's a whole lot we don't yet understand about how and why this works. Despite that, a combined vaccine and cure has just finished very successful human trials and should be hitting the market reasonably soon. If I understand correctly, the scourge of Alzheimer's disease is about to disappear. Very big deal, and a perfect example of fixing imperfectly-understood damage.

[summa]

I'm no expert but ive read more then enough to suggest that there is all kinds of hidden stuff that happens.

[PhysStud]

I wouldn't mind living for a couple hundred years, but forever? I'm not so sure...

[phozee]

I'm sure you would change your mind once you have reached your end.