NOTICE: Please read our response lower on this page to allegations made in an article in Science on September 26, 2008.
The Supercentenarian Research Foundation (SRF) has been formed as an
international non-profit organization to accept tax deductible donations that will be
utilized to fund research into the biology of aging. The initial focus will be on
supercentenarians (those who are at least 110 years old), their siblings, and offspring,
but successively younger age groups will eventually also be investigated.
Before research into methods of intervening in aging are conducted, diagnosis of the
causes and effects of aging as exhibited in supercentenarians will be studied in order to
determine 1) why they live longer than most, and 2) what limits their life span.
Consideration will be given to all reasonable theories of aging to answer these questions,
but none will be adopted a priori. Following the diagnostic phase, research will be
supported in an intervention phase to attempt to prevent, ameliorate, and reverse the
causes and effects of aging. The products of this research will be directed at providing
longer and healthier lives for both supercentenarians and those who would otherwise not
live as long.
A comprehensive Research Plan will be developed with the participation of leading
gerontologists. This plan will then be presented to potential donors to request their
financial support. Our vision is that the Supercentenarian Research Foundation will become
a significant source of grants for aging research.
Regrettably, Science declined to publish the following letter:
To the Editor:
In the News Focus article, "AGING: Searching for the Secrets of the Super Old," by Mitch Leslie
in the September 26, 2008, issue of Science (Vol. 321, No. 5897, pp. 1764 - 5) the following statement
was made concerning Dr. Thomas Perls' reason for not collaborating with the Supercentenarian Research
Foundation (SRF):
"Perls says he declined to collaborate with Coles's group in part because some of its members are
involved in so-called Antiaging Medicine, whose practitioners claim to be able to alleviate time's ravages
with treatments such as injections of human Growth Hormone (hGH)."
We want to make it absolutely clear that the Supercentenarian Research Foundation (SRF) does not
advocate the use of human Growth Hormone or any other therapy to treat aging. There is nothing on
our website at
www.Supercentenarian-Research-Foundation.org that even suggests or implies that we promote the use of hGH as an anti-aging therapy. In fact, two members of our Scientific Advisory Board, Drs. Andrzej Bartke and Holly Brown-Borg, have conducted research that demonstrated the negative effect of GH on the longevity of mice. To our knowledge, there is no one on the SRF Board of Directors or in a senior decision-making or scientific-advisory position with the SRF who is presently actively involved in practicing, advocating, or promoting the injection of hGH to alleviate the ravages of time.
As mentioned above, the SRF mission is NOT to promote or advocate any particular "anti-aging therapy."
Our focus is on research that studies individuals who have approached the maximum human lifespan to gain
knowledge and insights that can be used for the benefit of everyone. We feel that supercentenarians are the
valedictorians of postponing aging. The mission of the SRF is three-fold:
- To determine why supercentenarians live longer than anyone else;
- To determine what limits their lifespan; and
- To identify the basic factors of aging that impact diseases of old age and which shorten the life expectancy of the general population.
We pursue this mission objectively, without having decided a priori what the results should be. We are
collaborating with researchers at major universities and academic medical centers in the United States and
abroad to conduct research that will generate critical insights with the potential to benefit the health of the general population and ultimately the supercentenarians themselves.
Thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight and to correct any misinformation.
Doros Platika, M.D., Chairman and CEO
L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., Treasurer
Stanley R. Primmer, M.A., Director
Supercentenarian Research Foundation
664 West Arbor Vitae Street, Suite 1
Inglewood, CA 90301-3160; USA
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