LEx Prize
The American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) has been quietly promoting the concept of a $1 million LEx / Life Extension Prize, already 1/3 funded by the look of it. Their objective appears to be to encourage the development of responsible anti-aging medicine through objective measure of performance. This is a laudable goal within their fraud-ridden industry and definition of anti-aging medicine (the prevention and treatment of age-related disease), but has the look of a project that needs further thought and definition. How do you define 20 years of reversal in the chosen biomarkers of aging? Do you acknowledge that reversal of the chosen biomarkers may have no effect on the underlying processes of aging - and may even reduce life span, as seems to be the case for growth hormone? You should read biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey's comments to a Fight Aging! post on aging biomarkers, and a further discussion on the same the following year.