Portfolio.com:
Never Say Die by Alexandra Wolfe
The search for immortality—or at least the exponential extension of human life—is hardly new. But now the hedge fund set has joined the quest, and some big money and names are betting on a "cure" for aging.
Indeed, if there is a major longevity breakthrough, it will come despite a great deal of friction in the field. Traditional geriatric medicine is inclined to write off De Grey as a nut. The nanotechnologists think the cryopreservationists are crazy. The cryopreservationists think the nanotechnologists are optimists living in a fantasy world. The hormone-rejuvenation crowd thinks the calorie restrictors are Spartans, and the calorie restrictors think the hormone-rejuvenation experts are causing cancer.
Just another positive reason to hold
SIRT long term:
...independent researchers noted that a pill form of resveratrol—the antioxidant found in red wine—mimicked the effects of calorie restriction in rats that weren’t on a diet. Problem: Given the amount of resveratrol in red wine, and after adjusting for body weight and metabolism, humans would have to drink a huge amount of wine each day to get the same results. Still, big money is chasing the idea: The findings were provocative enough to allow Sirtris, a biotech startup co-founded by a Harvard M.D. and his venture capitalist partner, to raise about $60 million from an initial public offering to try to produce a pill with a highly concentrated amount of resveratrol.
