The Major Mouse Testing Project – An Ambitious Plan To Speed Up Regenerative Medicine

While aging research has more publicity than ever, progress is extremely slow when it comes to therapeutics. Sadly very few high impact aging studies are published each year, and while we now have a large list of potential therapeutic strategies, they need further testing, and quickly! 

Enter the MMTP

We know drugs like Metformin, and Rapamycin can extend lives of animals individually, but we sorely need more data on a range of treatments, including previously untested compounds, so any success stories can be streamlined to the clinic faster. 

“The Major Mouse Testing Program is helping speed up the progress of longevity research by creating the kind of quality animal data needed to justify further investment and funding in our important field. We believe our work will be instrumental in speeding up scientific progress and justifying further investment in the field of regenerative medicine”

The Major Mouse Testing Program aims to test a number of treatments at a previously unknown scale, with an international team of researchers. The testing will initially begin on older mice, and will eventually uniquely include synergy testing – meaning multiple compounds will be combined at once. This could reveal which potential longevity agents work even better when combined with another. 

“If about 5% of tested interventions lead to statistically significant life extensions, then a robust set of 100 geroprotectors will be found in maybe a hundred years! Too late for you? Our goal is to accelerate this by a factor of 10 to 20 times by running a few consecutive series of many lifespan tests in parallel”

Removal of senescent cells (below) is one primary area the MMTP will test

While the project will begin with a limited number of tests, with increased funding and success it plans to expand much further. The initial series of research involves testing on a range of compounds like Dasatnib and Quercetin which have shown potential in removing old, senescent cells, an ALK5 inhibitor to improve stem cell function and Navitoclax which is another ‘seneolytic’ remover of senescent cells. There are many more therapeutics to test. 

The project aims to kick off in early 2016 with research at Leipzig University headed by experienced, lead researcher Dr. Alexandra Stolzing.

You can help support it! 

The MMTP has a crowdfunding campaign that needs your help to get off the ground. Go check it out here

Find the home page at majormouse.org