To get discussions started and get to know each other, I suggest all members post a brief description of how they became interested in SENS research. If finding this group is the first time you’ve heard of SENS, then tell us what made you interested enough to join.

I’ll start with my story: From an early age I was fascinated with the prospect of life-extension from reading science fiction. Shortly before starting my undergrad I began reading all the popular non-fiction books on aging that I could find, then journal articles. This eventually led me to Aubrey de Grey’s article “An engineer’s approach to the development of real anti-aging medicine”.

The article immediately struck me as the sort of proactive approach to intervening in aging that other gerontologists seemed too timid to discuss, yet was clearly the approach necessary for achieving dramatic increases in lifespan! I immediately immersed myself in the latest literature relevant to the different aspects of SENS (too the detriment of my grades). After two years of reading, and one summer fellowship at a lab studying longevity in drosophila, I composed my view of the big picture of aging into an paper and submitted it to Rejuvenation Research. It was accepted suprisingly fast!

Since then I have continued to be involved in SENS research. I’m currently working towards a PhD at the University of Cambridge, studing allotopic expression.