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Once SENS is accomplished in mice, there will be plenty of money that will flow into converting the SENS therapies into human therapies. Yes, safety is an issue and will take time, but most of the basic scientific work will be done. Also, effective gene therpy will probably be available for other medical conditions within 10 years, so this should not be as difficult issue as it is now.
Some of the seven deadly things may already be treatable by the time SENS is accomplished in mice. There is a new vaccine for alzhiemer's that works by eliminating the extracular junk that is responsible for the desease, which should be available in 10 years time. Also, ALT-711 and derivative treatments should be available by this time as well. That would cut the list down to five deadly things, which stem cell regeneration would take care of an additional one. Others may be curable by this time.
I agree with Aubry that curing cancer (at least by his proposed method) is going to be the most expensive, time-consumming aspect of SENS. Once it begins to sink into the minds of the cancer community that Aubry's approach is the only workable one, I think the cancer research organizations will begin to finance this research.
The key for FDA approval is to find a specific disease associated with each of the seven deadly things (for gycation its diabedes, for extracellular junk its alzheimers, etc.) and get these therapies approved for treating these diseases. That is, if by this time, the FDA persists in refusing to classify aging as a medical condition.
I think lobbying the FDA to classify aging as a disease state would be the more direct approach, or to lobby for the abolition of the FDA.
There are work-related, age discrimination lawsuits that can be used as the legal basis to get the FDA and medical establishment to classify aging as a disease.
[Posted by: Kurt at October 3, 2004 12:15 PM]
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