Longecity’s approach to supporting scientific research has always been characterized by small-scale, high-impact projects sourced and steered by and in connection with its community. Years before ‘crowdfunding’ and ‘citizen science’ became well known concepts they were
practiced at LongeCity.
Some examples of SCIENCE projects we have crowdsourced in the past:
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“Laser ablation of lipofuscin”
[2009] Lead: N.Schooler (SENS/private). An attempt to use medical lasers
to eliminate Alzheimer plaques, this was an early venture in Longecity
crowdfunding. While results were not of satisfactory robustness, this
project paved the way towards LongeCity taking a planned approach to
quality control in community crowdfunding science. [More
info] |
“Mitochondrial uncoupling”
[2010] Lead: Dr. J.Gruber (Singapore). Modulation of the incomplete coupling
of electron transfer to ATP synthesis across the mitochondrial membrane
has been proposed as a mechanism to slow aging. The project investigated
this hypothesis in worms.
[Follow-up interview] |
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“Adult stem cells versus Alzheimer's”
[2011] Lead: Dr. A.Stolzing (Germany). Aiming to use adult stem cells in the fight
against age-related neurodegeneration such as Alzheimer's disease. Perhaps the
most ambitious LongeCity funded project to date. [Publication] |
“Modelling cryoprotectant
toxicity”
[2012] Lead: Dr. JP de Magalhães (UK). The innate toxicity of compounds used
to protect against freezing damage limits their use for advancing the
science of medical biostasis. Longecity crowdfunding helped generate new
insights from gene expression profiling of endothelial cells exposed to
ethylene glycol, thus helping to reveal molecular signatures helpful for
future experiments on cryoprotectant toxicity [Publication] |
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“Mitochondria gene therapy”
[2013] Lead: Dr. M.O’Connor (SENS). Another perspective at the crucial role of
mitochondria in aging, this project supported research into rejuvenating these
‘power plants’ of the cell. $21K was mobilized and lead directly to a much
larger
follow-up
project |
“Buckyballs & cancer”
[2014] Lead: Dr. K.Moody (Ichor), the Longecity community got very intrigued
about a research paper reporting to extend mouse lifespan with nanosize
C60 ‘buckyballs’. Via crowdsourcing we promoted further independent
investigation
into C60 effects which, as a side effect also prompted some interesting vendor
testing data. |
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Co -Funding
In recent years, LongeCity has strategically offered co-funding to maximize the
impact of fundraisers at LIFESPAN.IO
Among the projects supported were:
CellAge [2017];
AgeMeter
[2017]; MitoMouse
[2019] |
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In addition to these specific research projects,
LongeCity has
⇒ supported students via small
grants,
⇒ established a research partnership and support strategy
and
⇒
taken the same crowdsourcing approach to other community initiatives. |
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