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Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey (; born 20 April 1963) is an English author and biomedical gerontologist. He is the author of ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'' (1999) and co-author of ''
Ending Aging ''Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime'' is a 2007 book written by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, with his research assistant Michael Rae. ''Ending Aging'' describes de Grey's proposal f ...
'' (2007). He is known for his view that medical technology may enable human beings alive today not to die from age-related causes.Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality
www.livescience.com. As an amateur mathematician, he has contributed to the study of the
Hadwiger–Nelson problem In geometric graph theory, the Hadwiger–Nelson problem, named after Hugo Hadwiger and Edward Nelson, asks for the minimum number of colors required to color the plane such that no two points at distance 1 from each other have the same color. ...
in
geometric graph theory Geometric graph theory in the broader sense is a large and amorphous subfield of graph theory, concerned with graphs defined by geometric means. In a stricter sense, geometric graph theory studies combinatorial and geometric properties of geome ...
, making the first progress on the problem in over 60 years. De Grey is an international adjunct professor of the
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT; russian: Московский Физико-Технический институт, also known as PhysTech), is a public research university located in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It prepares speciali ...
, a fellow of the
Gerontological Society of America The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is a multidisciplinary organization devoted to research and education in all aspects of gerontology: medical, biological, psychological and social. History and organization The Gerontological Society ...
, the
American Aging Association The American Aging Association is a non-profit, tax-exempt biogerontology organization of scientists and laypeople dedicated to biomedical aging studies and geroscience, with the goal of slowing the aging process to extend the healthy human lifesp ...
, and the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) is a technoprogressive think tank that seeks to "promote ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies."Joseph R. ...
. He has been interviewed in recent years in a number of news sources, including CBS '' 60 Minutes'', the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', '' Fortune Magazine'', ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', '' TED'', '' Popular Science'',
Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
, ''
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'', ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'', the ''
Skeptics' Guide to the Universe ''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe'' (''SGU'') is an American weekly skeptical podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, along with a panel of contributors. The official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, it was named to evoke ''Th ...
'', and ''
The Joe Rogan Experience ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' is a podcast hosted by American comedian, presenter, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. It launched on December 24, 2009, on YouTube by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who was its sole co-host and producer unti ...
''. He was the Chief Science Officer of the
SENS Research Foundation The SENS Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that does research programs and public relations work for the application of regenerative medicine to aging. It was founded in 2009, located in Mountain View, California, USA. The organiza ...
, but was fired in August 2021 after allegedly interfering in a probe investigating sexual harassment allegations against him. In late 2022, de Grey co-founded LEV Foundation as President and Chief Science Officer.


Early life and education

De Grey was born and brought up in London, England. He told ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' that he never knew his father, and that his mother Cordelia, an artist, encouraged him in the areas in which she herself was weakest: science and mathematics. De Grey was educated at
Sussex House School Sussex House School (commonly known as Sussex House), is a boys’ preparatory school located in Chelsea, London. Founded in 1952, the school occupies a house designed by Norman Shaw at 68 Cadogan Square, and since 1994 has operated as an indep ...
and Harrow School. He attended university at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in computer science in 1985.


Career

After graduation in 1985, de Grey joined
Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. It was originally incorporated in 1973 as Westminster Mail Order Ltd, renamed Sinclair Instrument Ltd, then Science of Cambridge Ltd, then ...
as an
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
researcher and software engineer. In 1986, he co-founded Man-Made Minions Ltd to pursue the development of an automated formal program verifier. At a graduate party in Cambridge, de Grey met fruit fly geneticist Adelaide Carpenter whom he would later marry. Through her he was introduced to the intersection of biology and programming when her boss needed someone who knew about computers and biology to take over the running of a database on fruit flies. He educated himself in biology by reading journals and textbooks, attending conferences, and being tutored by Professor Carpenter. From 1992 to 2006, he was in charge of software development at the university's Genetics Department for the
FlyBase FlyBase is an online bioinformatics database and the primary repository of genetic and molecular data for the insect family Drosophilidae. For the most extensively studied species and model organism, ''Drosophila melanogaster'', a wide range of d ...
genetic database. Cambridge awarded de Grey a Ph.D. by publication in biology on 9 December 2000.Congregation of the Regent House on 9 December 2000
Cambridge University Reporter The ''Cambridge University Reporter'', founded in 1870, is the official journal of record of the University of Cambridge, England. Overview The ''Cambridge University Reporter'' appears within the University and online every Wednesday during ...
, 13 December 2000.
Special regulations
available only to Cambridge degree holders (of whatever discipline) permit the submission of "...a significant contribution to scholarship" instead. Though the awardee has not been registered as a PhD student, the degree is not honorary; applicants are evaluated by the usual methods, with examiners appointed and an oral defense of the submitted work. The degree was based on his 1999 book ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'', in which de Grey wrote that obviating damage to mitochondrial DNA might by itself extend lifespan significantly, though he said it was more likely that cumulative damage to mitochondria is a significant cause of senescence, but not the single dominant cause.


Xenocatabolism

Xenocatabolism is a concept in medical
bioremediation Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and plants), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, water, soil, flue gasses, industrial effluent ...
that relies upon introducing into the body microbial enzymes that break down pathogenic lysosomal, cytosolic and extracellular aggregates. The term, also called xenohydrolysis, was coined by de Grey, building upon the work of others. De Grey posited that there are
microbes A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
that feed on substances such as
amyloid Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of 7–13 nm in diameter, a beta sheet (β-sheet) secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the huma ...
, cholesterol and other related substances in places that are full of
human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
remains, such as graveyards. This was based on the microbial infallibility hypothesis. He states that "the biomedical approach would be to identify the genetic basis for that capacity, and to put one or two genes into ourselves, thereby enhancing our own ability to break things down, and to thereby get rid of things that we cannot naturally break down". In order to add credibility to the concept, de Grey created an experiment using
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debri ...
from a graveyard and took the
bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...
from it. He used
lipofuscin Lipofuscin is the name given to fine yellow-brown pigment granules composed of lipid-containing residues of lysosomal digestion. It is considered to be one of the aging or "wear-and-tear" pigments, found in the liver, kidney, heart muscle, reti ...
, "one of the major things that accumulates indigestibly in the body" – which some of the bacteria broke down, lending credibility to the hypothesis. De Grey presented this theory on May 29, 2007, at the Googleplex Google TechTalks.


Strategies

In 2005, de Grey argued that most of the fundamental knowledge needed to develop effective anti-aging medicine already existed, and that the science is ahead of the funding. He described his work as identifying and promoting specific technological approaches to the reversal of various aspects of aging, or, as de Grey put it, "... the set of accumulated side effects from
Metabolism Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run c ...
that eventually kills us." , de Grey's work centered on a detailed plan called strategies for engineered negligible senescence (SENS), which is aimed at preventing age-related physical and cognitive decline. In March 2009, he co-founded the
SENS Research Foundation The SENS Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that does research programs and public relations work for the application of regenerative medicine to aging. It was founded in 2009, located in Mountain View, California, USA. The organiza ...
(named SENS Foundation until early 2013), a non-profit organisation based in California, United States, where he served until 2021 as Chief Science Officer. The foundation "works to develop, promote and ensure widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging," focusing on the strategies for engineered negligible senescence. Before March 2009, the SENS research program was mainly pursued by the
Methuselah Foundation The Methuselah Foundation is an American-based global non-profit organization, based in Springfield, Virginia, with a declared mission to "make 90 the new 50 by 2030" by supporting tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies. The orga ...
, co-founded by de Grey. A major activity of the Methuselah Foundation is the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a prize designed to incentivize research into effective life extension interventions by awarding monetary prizes to researchers who stretch the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. 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 4.2
USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
million in February 2007. In 2007, de Grey wrote the book ''
Ending Aging ''Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime'' is a 2007 book written by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, with his research assistant Michael Rae. ''Ending Aging'' describes de Grey's proposal f ...
'' with the assistance of Michael Rae.de Grey, Aubrey; Rae, Michael. September 2007. ''
Ending Aging ''Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime'' is a 2007 book written by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, with his research assistant Michael Rae. ''Ending Aging'' describes de Grey's proposal f ...
: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime''. New York, NY: Saint Martin's Press, 416 p. . In a 2008 broadcast on Franco-German TV network
Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...
, de Grey claimed that the first human to live 1,000 years was probably already alive, and might even be between 50 and 60 years old already. In 2012, de Grey inherited a considerable fortune of more than , of which he donated to the SENS Research Foundation. In 2022, de Grey started a new foundation and announced this at the Longevity Summit in Dublin. The board of directors include Greg Grinberg as Executive Chair, Daria Khaltourina, Martin O’Dea (also Events Director), Gennady Stolyarov and David Wood.


Mathematics

On 8 April 2018, de Grey posted a paper to
arXiv arXiv (pronounced "archive"—the X represents the Greek letter chi ⟨χ⟩) is an open-access repository of electronic preprints and postprints (known as e-prints) approved for posting after moderation, but not peer review. It consists of ...
explicitly constructing a unit-distance graph in the plane that cannot be colored with fewer than five colors, increasing the previously known lower bound by one. The previous lower bound of four was due to the problem's original proposal in 1950 by Hugo Hadwiger and Edward Nelson. De Grey's graph has 1581 vertices, but it has since been reduced to 510 vertices by independent researchers.


AgeX Therapeutics

De Grey was formerly Vice President of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, a startup in the longevity space helmed by Michael D. West, PhD. De Grey was appointed to the position within the company in July 2017.


Personal views


Outlook on the future of anti-aging medicine

Aubrey de Grey coined the term Methuselarity, which he defines as the moment when medical therapies will rejuvenate people enough to continue living healthily until the next improved generation of rejuvenation biotechnology, and so on, indefinitely. According to de Grey, that is synonymous with the point where science achieves
longevity escape velocity In the life extension movement, longevity escape velocity (LEV) or actuarial escape velocity is a hypothetical situation in which one's remaining life expectancy (not ''life expectancy at birth'') is extended longer than the time that is passing ...
–the minimum rate at which those therapies need to be improved in order to allow people not to suffer from age-related ill-health at any age. In 2022, he stated that there is a 50% chance that this breakthrough was only 15 years away. However, de Grey views the fatalistic attitude toward aging in society, as he sees it, as a hurdle in the rapid development of anti-aging medicine, which he calls " pro-aging trance".


''Technology Review'' debate

In 2005, ''
MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...
'', in cooperation with the Methuselah Foundation, announced a $20,000 prize for any molecular biologist who could demonstrate that SENS was "so wrong that it is unworthy of learned debate." The judges of the challenge were
Rodney Brooks Rodney Allen Brooks (born 30 December 1954) is an Australian roboticist, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, author, and robotics entrepreneur, most known for popularizing the actionist approach to robotics. He was a Panasonic Profes ...
, Anita Goel, Vikram Sheel Kumar,
Nathan Myhrvold Nathan Paul Myhrvold (born August 3, 1959), formerly Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, is co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and the principal author of '' Modernist Cuisine'' and its successor books. Myhrvold was listed as co-inventor ...
, and Craig Venter. Five submissions were made, of which three met the terms of the challenge. De Grey wrote a rebuttal to each submission, and the challengers wrote responses to each rebuttal. The judges concluded that none of the challengers had disproved SENS, but the magazine opined that one of the submissions had been particularly eloquent and well written, and awarded the contestant $10,000. The judges also noted "the proponents of SENS have not made a compelling case for SENS", and wrote that many of its proposals could not be verified with the current level of scientific knowledge and technology, concluding that "SENS does not compel the assent of many knowledgeable scientists; but neither is it demonstrably wrong." The critics single out three proposed therapies for criticism: somatic telomerase deletion, somatic mitochondrial genome engineering, and the use of transgenic microbial hydrolase. Later in 2005, he was the subject of an associated critical editorial article in the ''MIT Technology Review'', which viewed his theories as oversimplifying anti-aging as a scientific goal, and expressed concern at a lack of ethical and moral considerations towards anti-aging research.


''EMBO Reports''

A 2005 article about SENS published in the viewpoint section of ''
EMBO Reports ''EMBO Reports'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research related to biology at a molecular level. It publishes primary research papers, reviews, and essays and opinion. It also features commentaries on the social impact of advances ...
'' by 28 scientists concluded that none of de Grey's hypotheses "has ever been shown to extend the lifespan of any organism, let alone humans". The SENS Research Foundation, of which de Grey was a co-founder, acknowledged this, stating, "If you want to reverse the damage of aging right now I'm afraid the simple answer is, you can't." Moreover, de Grey argued that this reveals a serious gap in understanding between basic scientists and technologists and between biologists studying aging and those studying regenerative medicine. The 31-member Research Advisory Board of de Grey's SENS Research Foundation have signed an endorsement of the plausibility of the SENS approach. In 2021, the
National Institute on Aging The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA itself is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the ...
(NIA), a division of the U.S.
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH), showcased a SENS research project and provided a grant for the research.


Future of work

According to de Grey,
automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
will take over most jobs in the future. He also believes that the introduction of a universal basic income is necessary to find "some new way to distribute wealth that doesn’t depend on being paid to do things we wouldn’t otherwise do".


Cryonics

De Grey is a cryonicist, having signed up with Alcor.


Sexual harassment allegations

In August 2021, following allegations of sexual harassment by two women, de Grey was put on administrative leave by SENS.
Both women describe situations in which de Grey, explicitly spoke with them about sex. According to Halioua’s account, he even told her that it was her responsibility to sleep with SENS donors to encourage financial contributions. Deming was only 17 when, she alleges, de Grey told her he wanted to speak with her about his “adventurous love life.” Deming says that when she recently became aware that this was not a one-off incident, she was “angry to realize that Aubrey inappropriately propositioned more than one woman over whom he was in a position of power, many in the community knew about it, and no one did anything,” she writes.
The SENS board of directors decided to remove de Grey from his position as chief science officer, severing all ties with him following the report that he had allegedly attempted to interfere with the sexual harassment investigation. The independent investigator determined that de Grey made sexually inappropriate remarks to Deming and Halioua. The investigator also decided de Grey's attempt to communicate with Halioua via a third party constituted interference, although de Grey stated he believed that phase of the investigation had concluded. The investigator found that various other allegations against de Grey were not substantiated. In March 2022, the SENS Research Foundation released a statement regarding de Grey's employment affirming that while his actions "did substantiate instances of poor judgment and boundary-crossing behaviors, Dr. de Grey is not a sexual predator."


Bibliography

* * * *


See also

*
Biogerontology Biogerontology is the sub-field of gerontology concerned with the biological aging process, its evolutionary origins, and potential means to intervene in the process. The term "biogerontology" was coined by S. Rattan, and came in regular use wit ...
* List of life extension topics *
Regenerative medicine Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by st ...


References


External links

*
'We will be able to live to 1,000'
Interview with BBC website, outlining views *

Tendencias21, Mars 2013
SENS.org
SENS Research Foundation: regenerative medicine for the diseases of aging
medical bioremediation
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Grey, Aubrey 1963 births Living people Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Amateur mathematicians Biogerontologists British transhumanists Cryonicists English agnostics English scientists Immortality Life extensionists People educated at Harrow School Reversi players People educated at Sussex House School