Hello Fellow Traveller...
This is my personal webpage and I suspect you found your way to it because of some shared interest in increased healthy lifespan (or you just wanted to know a bit more about me).
Well, to start with I was born in 1963, which puts me closer to 50 than 40 at the time of this writing, and closer to the end of my life, stastically speaking than my birth. In fact, I am unequivocally and mathematically, middle aged, and this is the first time I've actually fully comprehended that harsh reality. Actually, the passage of chronological time and even the thought of "death" don't bother me at all, it is the passage of my health into the rear view mirror that I'm not that thrilled about. Now this lack of enthusiasm for the degeneration of my biology is not a new phenomenon for me. It's been going on for some time now. At the age of 37 I received clear notice that not all was well in the kingdom of Kevin's physiology when I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. I've been clear of the cancer for a number of years now and am a marvel of how technology can keep people alive long after an organ has been removed. I take daily synthetic thyroid hormone which keeps me alive; without it, I would likely be dead within a month. YAY for Synthroid! Two weeks after my diagnosis I underwent surgery and was subjected to the glory of our medical system. Now.. truly, if you compare what is available in terms of medical care now to what was available a hundred years ago, or is available in developing countries, we are really very lucky, however, if one compares the medical solutions that actually exist, to those that they may have thought were available, or should be, there is a bit of a disconnect. Funny thing, one doesn't ever really think about how the medical system works until one is thrust into its maw, chewed up, and spit out. The most important thing I learned from that experience is that no one, and I mean NO ONE, cares about your health as much as you do, or should. I vowed at that point that I would learn as much about my biology as I possibly could because, I reasoned, cancer at 40 was only the beginning of the landmines that an aging body may encounter and I wanted to be prepared for the next go round life had to throw at me. Central to that search was the logic that "age-related" diseases were, suprisingly, related, and having had some post-secondary education in biochemistry earlier in my life, I felt capable of poking about PubMed and EurekAlert, particularly interested in articles which talked about preventing age-related diseases in general or altering the aging process itself. After gleaning as much as I could and realizing that my education was sorely lacking, I subsequently re-enrolled at the University of Alberta to complete my BSc at the tender age of 43 with a double major in Biology and Chemistry. My parents were so proud! I ended up with a GPA that surprised anyone who had witnessed my earlier performance and even more so myself as I had thought my brain had degenerated along with the rest of my body, but it seems to have stood up rather well. Definitely something to be said about what happens when the student is motivated by the desire to avoid a repeat of a narrowly missed demise, and a hope to help his loved ones do the same.
It was three years after my diagnosis and into my my search for some indication that science was addressing the "problem" of aging that I came across a story on the internet of an English scientist who had a unique perspective on the source of age-related deterioration and a plan called "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" (SENS) to "fix" it. His name was Aubrey de Grey and he proposed that accumulation of damage to molecules over time by metabolic processes was the source of age-related degeneration and that science knew enough about this damage to propose ways of repairing it. Well, this seemed eminently sensible and welcome news to me and after reading a bit more about his proposals and their rationale, I flew to Cambridge to attend the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology 10th Congress, which Dr. de Grey was organizing. At the conference I hoped to meet the man and see what the community of aging research was about. I was incredibly naieve, expecting to hear about dramatic advances being made in fighting age-related disease and imminent breakthroughs being rapidly translated into clinical applications, and, more importantly to my mind, hear reflected in the words of the speakers the optimism I was feeling for the future of addressing age-related disease. I came away from that conference completely deflated and disappointed on all counts, as despite what I'd been reading about stem cells, gene therapies and the potential of new technologies for curing and preventing age-related disease, it was clear just how much more work needed to be done for their promise to be realized. In fact, depressingly, it appeared that the majority of the scientists there were as pessimistic as ever that anything could be done about the aging process, with one of the notable exceptions being Aubrey de Grey himself, who seemed to attract a lot of negative attention for that view.
Now, after I exited my initial run at a University degree in my early 20's, I entered the retail business world, joining our family business, hook, line, and sinker. With my father as a stern taskmaster I helped build, manage and eventually shared ownership of our family business, Riverside Honda and Skidoo Sales. My business management experience began at a young age... starting at five years old, pulling staples from crate boarding for 25 cents a sheet, moving up to janitorial work keeping the shop clean and to this day I am not averse to picking up a mop to wash the bathrooms and showroom floor. I subsequently moved through each department of our company eventually becoming the General Manager, self-educated in accounting and computer network integration and programming which are tasks I still do today. Thankfully however today we have professionals looking after most of the critical systems, enabling me to pursue what my family and business partners feel is an important direction for myself and those I care about. So with that background, you can understand that after being exposed to the medical system and then subjected to the "how many ways can't we do this" prognostications from the aging research community, it was clear to me that if I wanted to see some progress, I would almost certainly need to help it along, and I was definitely up for the challenge. Certainly, Dr. de Grey needed help, so I grabbed a mop and offered to convert the analog audio tape recordings (do they even use cassettes anywhere anymore) of the conference to MP3 format, for a start, and that was the beginning of one of the most interesting periods of my life which has not yet ended.
Immediately after obtaining my BSc in 2006, I entered the PhD program at the University of Alberta working in the lab of Bernard Lemire in the Department of Biochemistry. My project was studying how a single point mutation in the isp-1 subunit of Complex III of the mitochondria of C. elegans could result in an extended lifespan of 60%. My hope was to create a mutation of similar properties which would shed light on the mechanism by which this mutation exhibited its effects. Although I really enjoy benchwork, being a cancer survivor at 43 made me acutely aware of a sense of urgency to get medical technologies developed. Accordingly, I was drawn to the need for helping raise public awareness of the potential of scientific research to address age-related dysfunction and as a result I organized and ran a conference called the Edmonton Aging Symposium in the spring of 2007. The conference was unique in that I made a pointed effort to reach beyond academia. I invited senior citizen's organizations to participate as well as obtained a lot of political support from the municipal and provincial governments. Perhaps I was naieve and that protected me as I now understand just how hard it is to pull off such an elaborate event successfully and how lucky I was to achieve a truly great result. The Dean and other administrators at the Faculty of Medicine were so impressed with its quality and turnout that I received a "Spotlight on Achievement" award for the Symposium in 2007. I'm not sure I would have attempted it if I would have known just how much work it was. Although the conference kept me busy, I still managed to do quite a bit of work in the lab on my project whose results were, as is no surprise to those involved in research, less than inspiring... back to the petri dish...
At the same time that I was organizing the conference and pursuing my PhD in Biochemistry, I was also deeply involved with the Methuselah Foundation, which was founded by Aubrey de Grey and philanthropist David Gobel. It was in 2005 that I became the Executive Director of the Methuselah Mouse Prize and joined the Board of Directors of the Methuselah Foundation. The "Mprize", as we eventually shortened the name to, is a multi-million dollar competitive research award given to the scientist able to extend the healthy lifespan of a mouse past the current world record. The rationale behind the Mprize is that the major stumbling block to the development of therapies for age-related disease is lack of public awareness of the potential of new technologies. Being that the public is largely non-scientific, how does one communicate the exciting developments that are being made every day that hold near-term hope for addressing the diseases of aging? With the tried and true method of getting attention through breaking records, awarding cash, and a handing out fame. Over the three years I was the Executive Director, we assembled quite a group of competitors, a top-knotch Scientific Advisory Board, grew the prize into the millions of dollars, and made some signficant awards for interventions that created a lot of press. Although I still assist the MF, in late 2008 I stepped down from my formal responsibilties to help found two non-profit entities with similar missions. The first is the SENS Foundation, which is a new entity separate from the Methuselah Foundation, created for the purpose of administering the research agenda of its Chief Science Officer, Dr. Aubrey de Grey. The second organization I helped to found at that time was the LifeStar Institute, which takes a more global perspective at creating a meaningful response to the truly unprecedented negative impact of global aging and the barriers to the development of technologies to mitigate its consequences. It was after forming LifeStar Institute that I aligned the previously founded Aging Research Network, with LifeStar Institute and renamed it LifeStar Institute Canada.
As my own personal agenda is entirely about accelerating the development of therapies that restore function lost due to the aging process, and I want to maximize the usefulness of the time I have left on this earth to that end, I became discouraged when I experienced some of the difficulties working on my mitochondrial PhD project which were compounded by the knowledge that even great results little chance of having relevance in the creation of therapies for age-related disease. As a mature student with hopes of maximizing the value of my increasingly precious time, I weighed the options and in 2008 made the difficult decision to change my project. I had a good idea what I wanted to switch to as I had always been drawn to discussions of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Even while working on my mitochondrial project I was constantly reading new releases and papers so I guess that should have been an indicator. There was one researcher at the UofA, Dr. Robert Burrell, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Manning Award Winner, who was working on studying wound healing which is very relevant to regeneration. I approached him as a supervisor and am evaluating the best direction to take my thesis. I am interested in two main areas, the first is directly related to Dr. Burrell's work with nanocrystalline silver and its ability to enhance wound healing. Very little is known of how nanocrystalline silver dampens the inflammation in a wound, allowing the stem cells to effect healing at a faster rate with virtually no scarring. Elucidating the biological mechanism of nanocrystalline silver mediated healing is one possibility. Another potential avenue that I am interested in involves some of the work being done on how senescent cells ("old" cells) are themselves a source of inflammation, spewing out inflammatory molecules and just generally being bad neighbors. I am interested in how those molecules affect different stem cell populations where they reside in the body and whether inhibiting or removing senescent cells might enhance stem cell funciton during wound healing. If one can remove the inflammation in the aged milieu, preferably by removing the senescent cells, it might be possible to give your stem cells a hand and help them do a better job of repairing your aging body, or that is the theory. It might be worth mentioning that I had an incredible opportunity to give the keynote at two high profile public forums dealing with stem cell thearpies. They were held in the two major cities of the Province of Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton. The slides are sometimes out of sync with the audio, but you can view that webcast here.
I'm sure you've had enough... if you have further interest in some of the activities and organizations I'm involved in, have a look at the links below or email me. You can also download my CV in MS Word format which has my contact information and a bit more detail on some of the things I've been up to. In the meantime, please keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to become involved and help the public and mainstream become aware of the truly amazing potential of some of the new technologies you see emerging. With help, research can be accelerated and a lot more lives can be saved and suffering averted than would otherwise happen without it. If we work together, we can pass on a world where getting old truly enhances the indvidual and society, and that is a goal well worth striving for.
Download My CV
CV Download - Updated February 6, 2010Documentaries, Films and Videos
I happened to be involved in a very interesting project called "Living Forever: The Longevity Revolution". It's uploaded to Google Video and I hope you have a look and enjoy it. It features Michael Rose as the narrator and some leading scientists, and me.
Writings and Other
Life or Death?
Are You an Elephant?
Life Will Find a Way
Interview with John Templeton of the Observer
The High Cost of Aging Poorly
Alice's Morning
Favorite Poetry
I am Not Resigned
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,--but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, --
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave,
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Favorite Quotes and Passages
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
-Arthur Schopenhauer
A time when all such good things will be for all men may be coming more nearly than we think. Each one who believes that brings the good time nearer; each heart that fails delays it.
-- H. G. Wells
It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening. We can not see, there is no need for us to see, what this world will be like when the day has fully come. We are creatures of the twilight. But it is out of our race and lineage that minds will spring, that will reach back to us in our littleness to know us better than we know ourselves, and that will reach forward fearlessly to comprehend this future that defeats our eyes. All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things, and a day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.
-- H.G. Wells; Nature February 6, 1902.
For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, some thing to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid…then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
-- Alfred d'Souza