“Indefinite postponement of aging is within sight”

The New York Academy of Sciences published in April 2002 and June 2004 the latest research findings worldwide on super longevity with this audacious claim, after doctors and scientists predicted that babies born in 2100 will have an average lifespan of 100 years, more than the present 72 years for male Americans.

Not everyone agreed.

A small group of scientists, claiming that 100 years was too short, predicted that if their plan called SENS bears fruit, humans can live even much longer.

As long as 5,000 years.

Meet the Mavericks

These scientists believe that SENS – Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence – makes sense. Composed of well-known experts in the fields of health care, genetics, and gerontology or the science of aging, the group includes:

• Dr. Bruce N. Ames, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of California at Berkeley, who discovered how chemicals trigger cancer

• Dr. Russel J. Reiter, Professor, Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, University of Texas in San Antonio, authority on cell repair and maintenance

• Dr. Hirohiko Kuratsune, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Osaka University, Japan, cancer specialist and pioneer in aging reversal of human cells

• Dr. Andrzej Bartke, endocrinologist at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, discovered how to protect DNA from age-related decay

• Dr. Christiaan Leeuwenburgh of the Biochemistry of Aging Laboratory, University of Florida, expert on brain degeneration and aging

• Drs. Leonid and Natalia S. Gavrilova, husband and wife team of superlongevity scientists from the Center on Aging, University of Chicago

• Dr. Li Li Ji of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who discovered how phytochemicals enhance the body's defenses against disease, cancer, and aging

• Dr. Aubrey D. N. J. de Grey, Computer Engineer of Cambridge University, U.K.; the prime mover of SENS, the group predicting a 5,000-year lifespan for humans