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MMTP Update April 2019

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A small update from the MMTP project team following meeting the lead investigator Dr. Alexandra Stolzing in Berlin recently.

Hi everyone, it has been a while and as we have recently spoken to Dr. Alexandra Stolzing at the Undoing Aging conference in Berlin about the MMTP we wanted to give a small update.

Dr. Stolzing has advised that the project is still going through the animal welfare review and regulatory process in Germany. The fact it has taken so long is deeply frustrating to the entire research team as well those people such as me who helped get the project started. We have spoken to a number of our backers about the challenge we are facing to launch the mouse testing phase of the experiment and they share our frustration too. Dr. Stolzing is determined to continue pushing to get this study approved and through the strict regulations here in the European Union. We can only apologize for this disappointing delay to the experiment but we are working hard to get things started.

The positive news is while we were waiting the research team decided to conduct an in vitro study on various human cell lines testing combinations of senolytic compounds up to three at once to see if there were synergistic or additive effects from mixing the compounds into senolytic “cocktails”. The idea behind the cocktails approach is based on the hypothesis proposed by Dr. Peter de Keizer which suggests that because different types of senescent cells use different pro-survival pathways to evade destruction, no single senolytic can remove them all. In using multiple senolytics which each target a different pro-survival pathway the hope was to get a more thorough senescent cell clearance.

We have now finished this in vitro study and a student from the research team is currently summarizing the data for his Ph.D. Once this is done the team will write the paper and it will be submitted to a journal for publication, the data at this point will be open access for everyone to enjoy. We hope that conducting this useful in vitro study will go some way towards making up for the delay on the mouse phase of the experiment and we will keep you posted on progress as more information comes in from Dr. Stolzing and her research team.

Thank you once again to all our generous supporters who helped make the project a reality, and we hope that it leads to some interesting results once the research team publishes its findings.

Thanks

The MMTP Team

About the author

Steve Hill

Steve serves on the LEAF Board of Directors and is the Editor in Chief, coordinating the daily news articles and social media content of the organization. He is an active journalist in the aging research and biotechnology field and has to date written over 600 articles on the topic, interviewed over 100 of the leading researchers in the field, hosted livestream events focused on aging, as well as attending various medical industry conferences. His work has been featured in H+ magazine, Psychology Today, Singularity Weblog, Standpoint Magazine, Swiss Monthly, Keep me Prime, and New Economy Magazine. Steve is one of three recipients of the 2020 H+ Innovator Award and shares this honour with Mirko Ranieri – Google AR and Dinorah Delfin – Immortalists Magazine. The H+ Innovator Award looks into our community and acknowledges ideas and projects that encourage social change, achieve scientific accomplishments, technological advances, philosophical and intellectual visions, author unique narratives, build fascinating artistic ventures, and develop products that bridge gaps and help us to achieve transhumanist goals. Steve has a background in project management and administration which has helped him to build a united team for effective fundraising and content creation, while his additional knowledge of biology and statistical data analysis allows him to carefully assess and coordinate the scientific groups involved in the project.