It is by now the established model for crowdfunding efforts to keep going for the full span of time allotted at launch and add stretch goals if the original target is reached early. The mitochondrial repair research project running at Lifespan.io hit its $30,000 goal at the end of last month, and so now we have stretch goals - see below for the updates.

The funds raised by this initiative will be used by the SENS Research Foundation to further in-house efforts at their Bay Area research center to apply allotopic expression to the whole mitochondrial genome. This involves gene therapy to introduce versions of all mitochondrial genes of interest into the cell nucleus, while amending the proteins produced in ways that ensure they will be transported back into the mitochondria where they are needed. This in effect creates a backup source of protein machinery needed for correct mitochondrial function and should make mitochondria, the cell's power plants, immune to the consequences of accumulating damage to their DNA, something that is thought to be a significant contributing cause of aging. Working allotopic expression therapies for all mitochondrial genes should be a cheap one-shot rejuvenation treatment, mass produced infusions that are the same for everyone and effective for everyone.

The groundwork for this approach has been laid over the past decade, some of it funded by early donors to the SENS Research Foundation. Across the pond those years of research have blossomed into commercial efforts at Gensight, where allotopic expression of a single mitochondrial gene is being developed as a therapy for the inherited condition Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. A lot of money is going towards that effort, which should go a long way towards making the underlying technology robust and palatable to regulators. That in turn allows researchers interesting in treating the damage to mitochondrial DNA in aging to focus on expanding the application of allotopic expression to all relevant portions of the mitochondrial genome.

Since donations to this crowdfunding initiative go to the SENS Research Foundation, the Fight Aging! matching fundraiser will match all such donations made on the 1st of this month or later, the date on which our fundraiser launched. The generous philanthropists who put up the funds for our $125,000 matching fund will match dollar for dollar all donations made to the SENS Research Foundation until the end of this year - or until the fund runs dry, which I hope will happen first. There is $90,000 or so left in the fund at this time. What are you waiting for?

MitoSENS Mitochondrial Repair Project: Updates