This pessimism/skepticism was the dominant view before Kenyon & Johnson's experiments found life-extending mutations in C. elegans.
-
-
Show this thread
-
A version of the skeptical thesis is also Aubrey de Grey's position -- he thinks the lifespan-regulating mechanisms that "work" in worms won't transfer to higher organisms.
Show this thread -
I, and most biogerontologists, are betting against the skeptical thesis, partly because there *is* evidence to suggest that lifespan is under genetic/hormonal control, and also for VOI reasons -- investigating in search of "master switches" could yield anti-aging drugs.
Show this thread -
Note that, if this approach works, it will completely fly in the face of everything drug development researchers are trained to do. Good pharma practice is to find "specific" drugs with single targets and well-understood effects.
Show this thread -
An anti-aging drug that modulates a global hormonal or metabolic pathway will do LOTS of things, not all of which we will understand ahead of time. This spooks experienced pharma researchers.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Usually when real life VOI come up, I find that it is useful to also think about ROI timescales in a complimentary analysis. Do you have any sense of roughly how many years it would take to EITHER find a master switch OR basically rule one out?
-
I think it would take <10 years to: a.) get reliable, replicable results on which small molecules, out of diverse libraries, delay aging in multiple short-lived invertebrate species; b.) find out if any of them delay aging in rodents.
- 12 more replies
New conversation -
-
-
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
It looks like the effect of CR on lifespan diminishes in larger organisms. In rhesus monkeys, CR doesn't seem to increase median lifespan, though it does improve other health outcomes.
- 3 more replies
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.