Good news from the Methuselah Foundation, organizers of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, or Mprize, for anti-aging research:

The recent SENS II conference was a huge success and The Mprize one of its beneficiaries. Mark Muhlestein saw the possibility of building on the amazing research presented and accelerating the day when real anti-aging therapies are available by supporting the Mprize and has committed to $25,000 with an offer that expires Jan 1, 2006. From the date of conference end until then, ALL incoming donations will be matched 1:2 (ie. a dollar donated is matched by two from the Muhlestein commitment) until there are no more funds available. We're confident we can help ensure that this generous offer is taken full advantage of! Join us and let's get every penny of research incentive!

Our community has three months to meet this generous challenge grant and push the Mprize further towards the $2 million mark. If you've been thinking about donating to the Mprize to help grow support for the science of healthy life extension and accelerate progress towards real anti-aging medicine, then now is the time! Ultimately, we are responsible for the way in which the future turns out; if we want our future to be one of longer, healthier lives and effective medicines capable of reversing age-related degeneration, then we have to step up and help to make it happen. Sitting on the sidelines and hoping is not going to cut it - the future doesn't make itself, and the past is replete with examples of advances still possible yet never accomplished. We don't want healthy life extension to be left on the sidelines when progress is so clearly possible with greater public support and research funding; if you feel that way too, then donate!

Even just a few dollars makes a big difference in the long term; research prizes like the Mprize are a very efficient way of making your support count. The Ansari X Prize led to competitors raising 16 research dollars for every prize dollar - other prizes have been even more effective. One-time donations are very welcome, but if you can spare a few dollars a day then please consider joining the ranks of The Three Hundred:

For the price of a cup of coffee per day, would you like to join a select group of humanitarians who will be remembered for their vision and saving millions of lives?

Modern medical science continues to show us that the aging process may no longer be the intractable problem it has been perceived to be for every generation preceding ours. There is a present need to move faster towards a previously unattainable goal: the control of aging. This need for more rapid medical progess is only magnified by the current profound lack of funding for aging research. Funding springs, at root, from widespread public awareness of advances and possibilities in aging research. Educating the public is an essential step in moving philanthropists and governments to allocate more resources to the study of aging. The problems caused by aging leave us poor in body, spirit, and finances. We must step forward to tackle them!

I am confident that the wider community can meet this challenge grant and in the process increase public support - and improve the funding environment - for serious anti-aging research: now get out there and prove me right.

Technorati tags: activism, anti-aging, life extension, Mprize

Posted by Reason at September 18, 2005 11:13 AM | TrackBack (1)