Concept
The Methuselah Foundation is an American-based global non-profit organization based in Springfield, Virginia, with a declared mission to "make 90 the new 50 by 2030" by supporting tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies. The organization was originally incorporated by David Gobel in 2001 as the Performance Prize Society, a name inspired by the British governments Longitude Act, which offered monetary rewards for anyone who could devise a portable, practical solution for determining a ship's longitude. In 2003, David Gobel, Aubrey de Grey, and Dane Gobel rebranded the organization Methuselah Foundation, named after Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah in the Hebrew Bible, whose lifespan was recorded as 969 years. The new name was introduced at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association, where they awarded the first Methuselah Mouse Prize to Andrej Bartke for his work on mice that lived the equivalent of 180 human years. The Foundation's work includes: incubating and investing in early-stage life science companies, funding scientific research, providing fiscal sponsorship to aligned projects, and sponsoring inducement prizes. Throughout its history, the Foundation has helped to reshape the perception of longevity research with the public and the scientific community. When it was launched, the field of longevity science was largely thought to be a playground for eccentrics. Today, anti-aging or longevity research exists in the scientific mainstream and represents a $7 trillion dollar marketplace. All of the Foundation's grants, investments, prizes and policy decisions follow seven strategies: New Parts for People recognizes that age takes a toll on human bodies. The strategy is designed to promote technologies that create replacement parts for human bodies, such as organs, cartilage, bones, and vasculature. Get the crud out acknowledges that cellular processes can result in harmful byproducts over time. The strategy promotes technologies to clear harmful substances from the body.
