Sirtris and the Third Rail Illustrated

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One of the folk working on mitochondrial repair via protofection has said "'The cure for aging' is the instant-death third rail of grantsmanship and we stay away from it." It doesn't matter how relevant your work is to rejuvenation via the slowing or repair of age-related damage, the conservative funding and regulatory culture wants to hear you disclaim any intent in that direction. Sadly, this is only now beginning to slowly change - but where the money is in full flow, this mindset remains well in evidence. Via a Fortune profile piece on Sirtris and the science behind its CR mimetics: "he's determined to avoid any whiff of 'fountain of youth' hype - specifically, of giving the impression that Sirtris is a bunch of flakes chasing miraculous elixirs, which is the kiss of death for a startup trying to raise millions of dollars from hard-nosed money managers. He spends a lot of time explaining that his company is working to cure diseases of aging, not to cure aging itself. There's a difference, especially in the minds of regulators, who view aging as part of the human condition, not an illness warranting treatment." These are the chains of the mind that must be broken if the promise of modern biotechnology can be fulfilled, and our healthy lives greatly lengthened.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/18/magazines/fortune/Live_forever.fortune/