Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey, Ph.D., (born April 20 1963 in London, England) is a Computer Associate for the FlyBase facility at the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, England, as well as a biomedical gerontologist. He is working to expedite the development of a "cure" for human aging, a medical goal he refers to as engineered negligible senescence. To this end, he has identified what he concludes are the seven areas of the aging process that need to be addressed medically before this can be done. He has been interviewed in recent years in many news sources, including CBS 60 Minutes, BBC, the New York Times, Fortune Magazine, and Popular Science.

Prior to his work in cellular and molecular biology, de Grey was formally trained as a computer scientist. In 1985 he received a B.A. in Computer Science from Cambridge. In 1995 de Grey turned his attention to the biology of aging and published the book The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (ISBN 1587061554). The book controversially claimed that obviating damage to mitochondria might by itself extend lifespan significantly, though it stated that it was more likely that cumulative damage to mitochondria is a significant cause of senescence, but not the single dominant cause. Cambridge granted de Grey a Ph.D. in biology in 2000^*.

Regarding his background as a computer scientist (in genetics), he states:

"There are really very important differences between the type of creativity involved in being a basic scientist and being an engineer. It means that I’m able to think in very different ways and come up with approaches to things that are different from the way a basic scientist might think."^*

He argues that the fundamental knowledge necessary to develop effective anti-aging medicine mostly exists today, and that the science is actually ahead of the funding. He works to identify and promote specific technological approaches to the reversal of various aspects of aging, or as De Grey puts it, "the set of accumulated side effects from metabolism that eventually kills us,"^*, and for the more proactive and urgent approaches to extending the healthy human lifespan. Regarding this issue, De Grey is a supporter of life extension.

As of 2005, de Grey's current work at Cambridge centered upon a detailed plan called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) which is aimed at preventing age-related physical and cognitive decline. He is also the co-founder (with David Gobel) and chief scientist of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a prize designed to accelerate research into effective life extension interventions by awarding monetary prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. Regarding this, De Grey stated in March 2005 "if we are to bring about real regenerative therapies that will benefit not just future generations, but those of us who are alive today, we must encourage scientists to work on the problem of aging." The prize reached US$3.4 million in May 2006, after having reached US$1.5 million in August 2005. De Grey believes that once dramatic life extension of already middle-aged mice has been achieved, a large amount of funding will be diverted to this kind of research, which would accelerate progress in doing the same for humans.

In 2005 de Grey was the subject of a set of three critical articles in Technology Review, all of them by editor Jason Pontin. See De Grey Technology Review controversy.

Scientific journal

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• Rejuvenation Research Editor: Aubrey de Grey. Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. ISSN 1549-1684 - Published Quarterly

See also

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• De Grey Technology Review controversy
• Engineered negligible senescence
• Human enhancement
• Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
• Life extension
• List of life extension related topics
• Methuselah Mouse Prize
• Rejuvenation
• Techno-progressivism
• Transhumanism

External links

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• SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence)
• Methuselah Mouse Prize
• Aubrey de Grey, Fellow, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
• Aubrey de Grey, advisor, The Singularity Institute
• 'We will be able to live to 1,000' Interview with BBC website, outlining views
• Popular Science article
• Technology Review article
• Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality interview with LiveScience
• Interview with Life Extension magazine
• The Man Who Would Murder Death "A rogue researcher challenges scientists to reverse human aging" The Chronicle of Higher Education 2005-10-14
• The Quest for Immortality - 60 Minutes television interview (January 1, 2006)
• Clips at Google Video Video clips of de Grey, including some lectures at conferences
• Antiaging Technology and Pseudoscience
• A short interview with AdG at Really Magazine (2005)

1963 births | Living people | Academics | Biogerontologists | Innovators | Founders by field | Life extensionists

Aubrey de Grey | Aubrey de Grey | Aubrey de Grey | Aubrey de Grey