The end of aging: In 20 years, Aubrey de Grey will change the world

Aubrey de Grey, a British biologist from Cambridge University, Britain, is at the base of an extraordinary controversy—he believes that within the next hundred years humans may have the opportunity to live, well, forever.

Stephen Colbert featured de Grey on his show The Colbert Report early this February. There, de Grey explained the goals he had for his research: “To develop technologies that work together to reverse the damage that accumulates . . . as a side-effect of being alive, and therefore, to rejuvenate people.”

De Grey compared his approach to rejuvenation with the repair and maintenance of vintage cars.” [They] are just as functional [today] as they were the day they were built,” he said.

According to his theory, significant improvement on defeating the effects of aging will be made within the next 20 years.

In a speech he gave in England in 2005, de Grey said, “I think the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already.”

In 2006, Co-founder of PayPal.com, Peter Thiel, pledged $3.5 million to de Grey’s Methuselah Foundation, where de Grey and a team of biologists are working to stop, and perhaps reverse the effects of aging.

Thiel, who made the donation hoping to see drastic improvement in human health and longevity, said, “I’m backing Dr. de Grey, because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process.”

But de Grey’s claims have also faced great denunciation. In 2005, according to The Washington Post, an “authoritative publication offered $20,000 to any molecular biologist” who could prove his theory to be not only wrong, but “unworthy of learned debate.”

That same year, de Grey faced criticism from 28 biogerontologists in the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization. According to them, De Grey’s take on aging deserves “no respect at all.”

Despite the effort, no biologist has been successful in disproving De Grey’s theory using only the scientific process.

In his book, Ending Aging, released late last year, De Grey identified the aging process as the result of seven general body-damaging factors. His plan is to attack these natural occurrences one-by-one.

“It is not just an idea,” he said in an article published by BBC in 2004, “It’s a very detailed plan to repair all the types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time.”

The Washington Post described de Grey’s approach to the problem of “intercellular aggregates”—toxic gel-like substances, such as Lipofusicin, that build up within our cells—as an example of the work de Grey has done to battle specific age-related bodily damage.

While the human body cannot effectively dispose of such gel, said de Grey, he and his team discovered that certain bacteria could digest the substance and turn it into compost. This bacteria was first discovered in an “ancient graveyard,” said The Washington Post.

For de Grey, it is merely a matter of getting such bacteria into the body—an idea not unheard of in the biotechnology field.

If de Grey and his team find success, individuals employed in dangerous careers may begin seeking alternative work. Non age-related deaths, such as murder, car accidents, and cancer, will continue to plague society.

-By Phil Meagher

What does this mean to you? What will happen if leaders and other individuals have the option to live as long as they please? Please, leave a comment below!