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CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: Dr. Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey
Current post: Chief Science Officer, SENS Foundation
Research area: the role and causes of all the accumulating and eventually pathogenic molecular and cellular side-effects of metabolism that constitute mammalian aging; the design of interventions to reverse and/or obviate this accumulation.
Bio paragraph (e.g., if you have invited me to speak and are creating promotional material):
Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Cambridge, UK, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. He received his BA and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1985 and 2000 respectively. His original field was computer science, and he did research in the private sector for six years in the area of software verification before switching to biogerontology in the mid-1990s. His research interests encompass the characterisation of all the accumulating and eventually pathogenic molecular and cellular side-effects of metabolism (“damage”) that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. He has developed a possibly comprehensive plan for such repair, termed Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), which breaks aging down into seven major classes of damage and identifies detailed approaches to addressing each one. A key aspect of SENS is that it can potentially extend healthy lifespan without limit, even though these repair processes will probably never be perfect, as the repair only needs to approach perfection rapidly enough to keep the overall level of damage below pathogenic levels. Dr. de Grey has termed this required rate of improvement of repair therapies “longevity escape velocity”. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations.
Tel.: +44 1223 366197
Email:
Date of birth: 20th April, 1963
Nationality: British
Marital status: Married to Dr. Adelaide T.C. Carpenter; no children
Education:
B.A. (1985), M.A. (1988) and Ph.D. (2000), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Past employment:
1985-1986: Sinclair Research, Cambridge, UK
1986-1992: Man-Made Minions, Cambridge, UK
1992 (Jan-Oct): EO Computer, Cambridge, UK
1992-2006: Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2003-2009: Chairman and Chief Science Officer, Methuselah Foundation
Honours:
2003: Gerontological Society of America: Fellow
2004: World Transhumanist Association: H.G. Wells Award
2005: American Aging Association: Fellow
Society memberships:
American Aging Association (member of board of directors, 2002-2007 and 2010-present)
International Association of Biomedical Gerontology
British Society for Research on Ageing (member of board of directors, 2003-2006)
Gerontological Society of America
International Coenzyme Q10 Association
Mitochondrion Research Society
Scientific advisory boards (unpaid):
Maximum Life Foundation
Legendary Pharmaceuticals
Centenarian Species and Rockfish Project
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
Foresight Institute
Biomind
Lifeboat Foundation
Humanity+
Conferences organised:
Euromit 4, Cambridge, UK, September 1999 (co-organiser)
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 1st roundtable, Oakland, CA, USA, October 2000
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 2nd roundtable, Los Angeles, CA, USA, Aug. 2001
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 3rd roundtable, Cambridge, UK, December 2002
International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, 10th Congress, Cambridge, UK, Sept. 2003
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 4th roundtable, Bethesda, MD, USA, July 2004
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 2nd conference, Cambridge, UK, September 2005
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 3rd conference, Cambridge, UK, September 2007
Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioenginering Approaches, Los Angeles, USA, June 2008
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 4th conference, Cambridge, UK, September 2009
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, 5th conference, Cambridge, UK, September 2011
Journal editorial board memberships:
Rejuvenation Research (editor-in-chief)
Mitochondrion (associate editor)
AGE – Journal of the American Aging Association
Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy
Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research
Publications:
- Articles in peer-reviewed journals:
de Grey ADNJ. A proposed refinement of the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging. BioEssays 1997; 19(2):161-166.
de Grey ADNJ. A mechanism proposed to explain the rise in oxidative stress during aging. J Anti-Aging Med 1998; 1(1):53-66.
de Grey ADNJ. Incorporation of transmembrane hydroxide transport into the chemiosmotic theory. Bioelectrochem Bioenerg 1999; 49(1-2):43-50.
de Grey ADNJ. The non-correlation between maximum longevity and enzymatic antioxidant levels among homeotherms; implications for retarding human aging. J Anti-Aging Med 2000; 3(1):25-36.
de Grey ADNJ. The reductive hotspot hypothesis: an update. Arch Biochem Biophys 2000; 373(1):295-301.
de Grey ADNJ. Mitochondrial gene therapy: an arena for the biomedical use of inteins. Trends Biotechnol 2000; 18(9):394-399.
de Grey ADNJ. A proposed mechanism for the lowering of mitochondrial electron leak by caloric restriction. Mitochondrion 2001; 1(2):129-139.
de Grey ADNJ. UK research on the biology of aging. Exp Gerontol 2001; 37(1):1-7.
de Grey ADNJ, Ames BN, Andersen JK, Bartke A, Campisi J, Heward CB, McCarter RJM, Stock G. Time to talk SENS: critiquing the immutability of human aging. Annals NY Acad Sci 2002; 959:452-462.
de Grey ADNJ. The reductive hotspot hypothesis of mammalian aging: membrane metabolism magnifies mutant mitochondrial mischief. Eur J Biochem 2002; 269(8):2003-2009.
de Grey ADNJ. HO2: the forgotten radical. DNA Cell Biol 2002; 21(4):251-257.
de Grey ADNJ, Baynes JW, Berd D, Heward CB, Pawelec G, Stock G. Is human aging still mysterious enough to be left only to scientists? BioEssays 2002; 24(7):667-676.
de Grey ADNJ. Bioremediation meets biomedicine: therapeutic translation of microbial catabolism to the lysosome. Trends Biotechnol 2002; 20(11):452-455.
de Grey ADNJ. An engineer’s approach to the development of real anti-aging medicine. Science’s SAGE KE 2003; 2003(1):vp1.
de Grey ADNJ. Challenging but essential targets for genuine anti-ageing drugs. Expert Opin Therap Targets 2003; 7(1):1-5.
de Grey ADNJ. Critique of the demographic evidence for “late-life non-senescence”. Biochem Soc Trans 2003; 31(2):452-454.
de Grey ADNJ. UK research on the biology of aging – the next ten years. Lifespan 2003; 11(1):1-4.
de Grey ADNJ. A hypothesis for the minimal overall structure of the mammalian plasma membrane redox system. Protoplasma 2003; 221(1-2):3-9.
de Grey ADNJ. The foreseeability of real anti-aging medicine: focusing the debate. Exp Gerontol 2003; 38(9):927-934.
de Grey ADNJ. Falsifying falsifications: the most critical task of theoreticians in biology. Med Hypoth 2004; 62(6):1012-1020.
de Grey ADNJ. Escape velocity: why the prospect of extreme human life extension matters now. PLoS Biol 2004; 2(6):723-726.
de Grey ADNJ, Campbell FC, Dokal I, Fairbairn LJ, Graham GJ, Jahoda CAB, Porter ACG. Total deletion of in vivo telomere elongation capacity: an ambitious but possibly ultimate cure for all age-related human cancers. Annals NY Acad Sci 2004; 1019:147-170.
de Grey ADNJ. Biogerontologists’ duty to discuss timescales publicly. Annals NY Acad Sci 2004; 1019:542-545.
de Grey ADNJ. Inter-species therapeutic cloning: the looming problem of mitochondrial DNA and two possible solutions. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(2):95-98.
de Grey ADNJ. The unfortunate influence of the weather on the rate of aging: why human caloric restriction or its emulation may only extend life expectancy by 2-3 years. Gerontology 2005; 51(2):73-82.
de Grey ADNJ. Forces maintaining organellar genomes: is any as strong as genetic code disparity or hydrophobicity? BioEssays 2005; 27(4):436-446.
de Grey ADNJ. Whole-body interdiction of lengthening of telomeres: a proposal for cancer prevention. Front Biosci 2005; 10:2420-2429.
de Grey ADNJ. Reactive oxygen species production in the mitochondrial matrix: implications for the mechanism of mitochondrial mutation accumulation. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(1):13-17.
de Grey ADNJ. Resistance to debate on how to postpone ageing is delaying progress and costing lives. EMBO Rep 2005; 6(S1):S49-S53.
de Grey ADNJ, Alvarez PJJ, Brady RO, Cuervo AM, Jerome WG, McCarty PL, Nixon RA, Rittmann BE, Sparrow JR. Medical bioremediation: prospects for the application of microbial catabolic diversity to aging and several major age-related diseases. Ageing Res Rev 2005; 4(3):315-338.
de Grey ADNJ. Life extension, human rights, and the rational refinement of repugnance. J Med Ethics 2005; 31(11):659-663.
de Grey ADNJ. A strategy for postponing aging indefinitely. Stud Health Technol Inform 2005; 118:209-219.
de Grey ADNJ. The plasma membrane redox system: a candidate source of aging-related oxidative stress. AGE J Am Aging Assoc 2005; 27(2):129-138.
de Grey ADNJ. Appropriating microbial catabolism: a proposal to treat and prevent neurodegeneration. Neurobiol Aging 2006; 27(4):589-595.
de Grey ADNJ. Extrapolaholics Anonymous: why demographers’ rejections of a huge rise in cohort life expectancy in this century are overconfident. Annals NY Acad Sci 2006; 1067:83-93.
de Grey ADNJ. Foreseeable pharmaceutical repair of age-related extracellular damage. Curr Drug Targets 2006; 7(11):1469-1477.
de Grey ADNJ. Free radicals in aging: causal complexity and its biomedical implications. Free Radic Res 2006; 40(12):1244-1249.
de Grey ADNJ. The urgency dilemma: is life extension research a temptation or a test? Update 2006; 21(1):6-10.
de Grey ADNJ. The natural biogerontology portfolio: “defeating aging” as a multi-stage ultra-Grand Challenge. Annals NY Acad Sci 2007; 1100:409-423.
de Grey ADNJ. Protagonistic pleiotropy: why cancer may be the only pathogenic effect of accumulating nuclear mutations and epimutations in aging. Mech Ageing Dev 2007; 128(7-8):456-459.
Phoenix CR, de Grey ADNJ. A model of aging as accumulated damage matches observed mortality patterns and predicts the life-extending effects of prospective interventions. AGE 2007; 29(4):133-189.
de Grey ADNJ. Calorie restriction, post-reproductive lifespan and programmed aging: a plea for rigour. Annals NY Acad Sci 2007; 1119:296-305.
de Grey ADNJ. Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, and aggregates: A role for bacterial degradation. Nutr Rev 2007; 65(12 Pt. 2):S221-S227.
de Grey ADNJ. Life span extension research and public debate: societal considerations. Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology 2007; 1(1):5.
de Grey ADNJ. Our right to life. J Evol Technol 2008; 17(2):53-57.
de Grey ADNJ. The singularity and the Methuselarity: similarities and differences. Stud Health Technol Inform 2009; 149:195-202.
- Reviews and commentaries:
de Grey ADNJ. More on mitochondria and senescence: Response to Gershon. BioEssays 1997; 19(6):534-534.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Cadenas E and Packer L (eds), “Understanding the Process of Aging: The Roles of Mitochondria, Free Radicals, and Antioxidants”. J Anti-Aging Med 1999; 2(3):291.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Harman D, Holliday R and Meydani M (eds), “Towards Prolongation of the Healthy Life Span: Practical Approaches to Intervention”. J Anti-Aging Med 1999; 2(3):292.
de Grey ADNJ. Popular gerontology comes of age. Review of Kirkwood TBL, “Time of our Lives”. BioEssays 1999; 21(9):802-803.
de Grey ADNJ. Biologists abandon Popper at their peril. BioEssays 2000; 22(2):206-207.
de Grey ADNJ. The function of mitochondrial dysfunction in aging. J Anti-Aging Med 2000; 3(1):109-112.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Asard H, Berczi A and Caubergs RJ (eds), “Plasma Membrane Redox Systems and Their Role in Biological Stress and Disease”. Antioxid Redox Signal 2000; 2(2):371-372.
de Grey ADNJ. Redox 2000: the 5th international conference on plasma membrane redox systems and their role in biological stress and disease. Antioxid Redox Signal 2000; 2(2):373-374.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Scheffler I, “Mitochondria”. J Am Aging Assoc 2000; 23(4):255.
de Grey ADNJ. Antioxidants and redox signaling: Internet resources. Antioxid Redox Signal 2000; 2(4):937-940.
de Grey ADNJ. Gerontologists and the media: the dangers of over-pessimism. Biogerontology 2000; 1(4):369-370.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Wickens A, “The Causes of Aging”. Exp Gerontol 2000; 34(8):1017-1018.
de Grey ADNJ. Response to “telomere shortening with aging in human liver”. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2001; 56(6):B237-B238.
de Grey ADNJ. Response to “approaches and limitations to gene therapy for mitochondrial diseases,” Antioxid. Redox Signal. 2001;3:451-460. Antioxid Redox Signal 2001; 3(6):1153-1155.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Finch CE and Kirkwood TBL, “Chance, development, and aging”. Exp Gerontol 2001; 36(10):1783-1785.
de Grey ADNJ. Nature of the aging process - Open discussion. Annals NY Acad Sci 2002; 959:463-465.
de Grey ADNJ, Gavrilov L, Olshansky SJ, Coles LS, Cutler RG, Fossel M, Harman SM. Antiaging technology and pseudoscience. Science 2002; 296(5568):656.
de Grey ADNJ. Three detailed hypotheses implicating oxidative damage to mitochondria as a major driving force in homeotherm aging. Eur J Biochem 2002; 269(8):1995.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Nicholls DG and Ferguson SJ, “Bioenergetics 3”. Mitochondrion 2002; 2(3):211-213.
de Grey ADNJ. Fear of misrepresentation cannot justify silence about foreseeable life-extension biotechnology. BioEssays 2003; 25(1):94-95.
de Grey ADNJ. Overzealous maximum-likelihood fitting falsely convicts the slope heterogeneity hypothesis. Exp Gerontol 2003; 38(8):921-923.
de Grey ADNJ. Review of Mattson MP and Van Zant G (eds), “Stem Cells: A Cellular Fountain of Youth”. Exp Gerontol 2003; 38(9):1025-1026.
de Grey ADNJ. Breathtaking biomedical blind spots. Review of Guarente L, “Ageless Quest”. BioEssays 2004; 26(1):108-109.
de Grey ADNJ. Models on trial: falsifying overstated claims of generality does not falsify correctly-stated ones. Exp Gerontol 2004; 39(3):453.
de Grey ADNJ. Mitochondria in homeotherm aging: will detailed mechanisms consistent with the evidence now receive attention? Aging Cell 2004; 3(2):77.
de Grey ADNJ. Report of open discussion on the future of life extension research. Annals NY Acad Sci 2004; 1019:552-553.
de Grey ADNJ. Welcome to Rejuvenation Research. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(1):1-2.
de Grey ADNJ. Leon Kass: quite substantially right. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(2):89-91.
de Grey ADNJ. Three self-evident life-extension truths. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(3):165-167.
de Grey ADNJ. Mitochondrial mutations in mammalian aging: an over-hasty about-turn? Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(3):171-174.
de Grey ADNJ. Meeting report: Regenerate 2004: tissue engineering the human body, June 10-12, 2004, Seattle. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(3):226-228.
de Grey ADNJ. Aging, childlessness, or overpopulation: the future’s right to choose. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(4):237-238.
de Grey ADNJ. Meeting report: 8th International Symposium on the Maillard Reaction. Charleston, South Carolina, August 28-September 1 2004. Rejuvenation Res 2004; 7(4):257-260.
de Grey ADNJ. When and where to publish important findings: a casualty of biogerontology’s rise to respectability. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(1):1-2.
de Grey ADNJ. “The rate of aging”: a counterproductively undefinable term. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(2):77-78.
de Grey ADNJ. The ethical status of efforts to postpone aging: a reply to Hurlbut. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(3):129-130.
de Grey ADNJ. The SENS Challenge: $20,000 says the foreseeable defeat of aging is not laughable. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(4):207-210.
de Grey ADNJ. Meeting report: International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, 11th Congress, 13th-16th August, 2005, Aarhus, Denmark. Rejuvenation Res 2005; 8(4):264-266.
de Grey ADNJ. Like it or not, life extension research extends beyond biogerontology. EMBO Reports 2005; 6(11):1000.
de Grey ADNJ. Compression of morbidity: the hype and the reality, part 1. Rejuvenation Res 2006; 9(1):1-2.