Guiding Us in Our Quest

Tapping into expensive expertise of these researchers and physicians is crucial step in helping the Foundation find ways to enhance and extend life.

Two years ago, the Life Extension Foundation launched an unprecedented research program called Project 2020 to achieve control over aging and death by the year 2020. Since then, the Foundation has begun to fund three Project 2020 research programs: the Lifespan Project for therapies to slow the aging process; the Rejuvenation Project for therapies to reverse the aging process; and the Suspended Animation Project to stop death cold in its tracks.

Thus far, the Foundation has committed more than $2 million towards these research programs. In the years to come, we plan to invest a great deal more money in these and other research programs. In the months to come, you will be reading about our funding of several more path-breaking anti-aging research studies.

To help guide us in our quest to achieve healthier, happier, longer life spans, we've brought together some of the leading authorities in life extension science and medicine to form our Scientific Advisory Board. We expect to tap the expertise of these eminent scientists and physicians for the design and analysis of the studies we fund. Several members of the board are already working with us to carry out Project 2020 research. We will be adding more members to the board, as our need for expertise expands into other areas of science and medicine.

Among the numerous awards presented to Dr. Walford are the American Aging Association Research Award, the Kleemeler Award from the Gerontological Society, and the Infinity Award from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. He has served on numerous editorial boards of scientific journals.

Among Dr. Walford's unique contributions to the nation's health and culture, he served as chief of medical operations for Biosphere 2; has written book and poetry reviews and travel articles for a number of publications; and is a published poet and actor as well as an artist. Among his books for the general public is Maximum Life Span.

Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D., is the originator of the free radical theory of aging. His early ideas about the role of free radicals in aging and degenerative disease, and his pioneering research studies with antioxidants paved the way for the explosion of biological and medical interest in this field in recent years.

For decades, Dr. Harman has worked as a researcher and practicing physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He is founder and director of the American Aging Association (AGE) and the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology. The conferences sponsored by these organizations provide ideal forums for cutting-edge biomedical anti-aging research.

Richard Weindruch, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is director of the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center's Aging Research Group, which is conducting a long-term calorie restriction research study in monkeys. He also is director of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Laboratory, as well as the Shared Aging Rodent Facility, at the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Madison. His 20-year research career has focused on the retardation of aging by caloric restriction.

Dr. Weindruch holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from UCLA, and his doctoral work was conducted under fellow board member Roy Walford, with whom he collaborated on numerous studies. Besides co-directing the Lifespan Project (with Dr. Spindler), he also is chairman of the National Institutes of Health's Geriatrics and Rehabilitative Medicine Study Section.

Stephen R. Spindler, Ph.D., is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California-Riverside. He has served as a member of the Physiological Sciences Study Section of the National Institutes of Health. For the past 12 years, Dr. Spindler has been investigating the molecular-genetic mechanisms of aging retardation and life span extension by calorie restriction.

Dr. Spindler earned his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of California-San Diego, and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a major in Biochemistry from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston. He has published more than 50 scientific papers.

Dr. Spindler and Dr. Richard Weindruch are directing the Life Extension Foundation's ground breaking Lifespan Project, the first large-scale, coordinated program to investigate the effects of dietary agents on aging and life span. The project began last month at Dr. Spindler's facilities and at the University of Wisconsin.

Steven B. Harris, M.D., is Medical Director and a research scientist at 21st Century Medicine in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., where he participates in ground breaking hypothermia, cryothermia and ischemia research. He also is staff geriatrician at the IHC Senior Clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah, and contributes to the Foundation's Lifespan Project.

Prior to working at 21st Century Medicine, Dr. Harris was a researcher at the laboratory of fellow board member Roy Walford, M.D., at UCLA Medical Center, where he supervised the rodent nutrition/aging program. His major anti-aging research interests include antioxidant and dietary restriction effects in animals and humans.

L. Cass Terry, M.D., Ph.D., is chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and chief of staff at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, Milwaukee. He has received numerous grants and awards for his research, and is an editorial consultant with several scientific and medical journals. One of Dr. Terry's major research interests is the effects of human growth hormone therapy on human aging. Dr. Terry received his medical degree from Marquette University Medical School, and his Ph.D. from McGill University Medical School.

Don Ingram, Ph.D., is a research psychologist at the Nathan W. Schock Laboratories, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. Dr. Ingram has conducted research on therapeutic agents designed to improve mental function in aging and dementia. He is a participating scientist in one of two long-term studies to determine the effects on aging and life span of caloric restriction in monkeys.

With a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, Dr. Ingram is currently president of the American Aging Association (AGE), is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and has served on the editorial and advisory boards of several medical journals. In 1996, Dr. Ingram received the Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Don Kleinsek, Ph.D., is president and founder of GeriGene Medical Corp., in Madison, Wisc. GeriGene's mission is to stop the aging process. Dr. Kleinsek is using state-of-the-art genetic research techniques to find, investigate and modify genes involved in the aging process.

Dr. Kleinsek received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in Physiological Chemistry. In addition to his entrepreneurial efforts with GeriGene, he is an associate scientist with the Institute on Aging. He owns five patents with more pending, and there are 35 patents by others based on Dr. Kleinsek's research on cholesterol metabolism.

Karlus Ullis, M.D., is one of the world's foremost sports medicine physicians. Since 1978, Dr. Ullis has focused on sports medicine care for UCLA intercollegiate athletes, recreational athletes, and world-class athletes. He has treated many Olympic Games gold medal winners and world record holders, and has been a team physician in five Olympic Games. Dr. Ullis' specialty is the diagnosis and rehabilitation of musculo-skeletal injuries (acute and chronic) and pain control. He has been involved in helping athletes achieve optimum performance levels, including metabolic, hormonal and nutritional interventions, with pertinent applications in the anti-aging arena. Dr. Ullis is in private practice in Santa Monica, Calif.

Arnold Fox, M.D., is an internist, cardiologist and practicing physician in Beverly Hills, Calif. With more than 40 years experience in the front lines of medicine, Dr. Fox specializes in anti-aging medicine. His practice utilizes nutritional and hormone replacement therapies for the prevention and treatment of premature aging and the diseases of aging, as well as more traditional medicine.

Currently an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific, Dr. Fox was a professor at the University of California-Irvine College of Medicine, is a commissioner for the Medical Board of California, and is on the board of directors of the American Academy of Pain Management. Dr. Fox is the author of a number of books for the general public. His latest is The Fat Blocker Diet.

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