Influential British biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey has developed a set of innovative ideas called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), marking a breakthrough in regenerative therapy. Founder of the SENS Foundation, dedicated to accelerating regenerative medicine, de Grey also heads the journal Rejuvenation Research. His perspective is that cell and tissue loss is not an inevitable fate, and can be repaired or even reversed by a variety of techniques. He exemplifies how adequate physical exercise can restore muscle mass. For other tissues, he points to the need for specific growth factors or stem cells to stimulate growth and repair. The removal of aged cells could be facilitated by the immune system or by gene therapies. De Grey also believes that macromolecular damage and cross-linking can be undone with the use of specific drugs or enzymes, and that vaccination could be a tool to eliminate extracellular debris, such as the amyloid proteins implicated in dementia and Alzheimer’s.
