The Lifespan Extension Advocacy Foundation (LEAF) is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

with mission to support fundamental research on the main mechanisms of

aging Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

and

age-related diseases An aging-associated disease (commonly termed age-related disease, ARD) is a disease that is most often seen with increasing frequency with increasing senescence. They are essentially complications of senescence, distinguished from the aging proc ...

and educate the public on the possibility of bringing aging under medical control in order to prevent, postpone and cure age-related diseases. It was founded in 2014 and is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Its activities include a news outlet covering aging research, an annual scientific conference on aging in New York City, and the nonprofit

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

platform ''Lifespan.io''. As of 2020, the platform has hosted eight successful campaigns, including three research projects by

SENS Research Foundation The SENS Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that does research programs and public relations work for the application of regenerative medicine to aging. It was founded in 2009, located in Mountain View, California, USA. The organiza ...

News outlet

LEAF established its news outlet in 2016 with the goal of educating the public on the progress in aging and longevity research. As of 2020, it contains over 900 news articles, including over 90 interviews with aging and rejuvenation researchers, such as

Aubrey de Grey Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey (; born 20 April 1963) is an English author and biomedical gerontologist. He is the author of ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'' (1999) and co-author of ''Ending Aging'' (2007). He is known ...

Judith Campisi Judith Campisi is an American biochemist and cell biologist. She is a professor of biogerontology at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. She is also a member of the SENS Research Foundation Advisory Board and an adviser at the Lifeboat Found ...

, Brian Kennedy,

Steve Horvath Steve Horvath is a German–American aging researcher, geneticist, and biostatistician. As the familyname Horváth indicates, he is of hungarian ancestry. He is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles known for developing the Epi ...

, David Sinclair, and

Gregory Fahy Gregory M. Fahy is a California-based cryobiologist, biogerontologist, and businessman. He is Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Twenty-First Century Medicine, Inc, and has co-founded ''Intervene Immune'', a company developing clinical ...

. In 2018, LEAF interviewed the Russian

geriatrician Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of older adults. The term ''geriatrics'' originates from the Greek γέρων ''geron'' meaning "old man", and ιατρός ''iatros' ...

Valery Novoselov on the questionable case of

Jeanne Calment Jeanne Louise Calment (; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997) was a French supercentenarian and the oldest human whose age is documented, with a lifespan of 122 years and 164 days. Her longevity attracted media attention and medical studies ...

’s exceptional longevity.

Scientific conference

Ending Age-Related Diseases: Investment Prospects and Advances in Research () is an annual scientific conference hosted by LEAF in New York City in the summer. It is focused on

biomarkers of aging Biomarkers of aging are biomarkers that could predict functional capacity at some later age better than chronological age. Stated another way, biomarkers of ageing, aging would give the true "biological age", which may be different from the chrono ...

, fundamental studies on

, the development of

rejuvenation Rejuvenation is a medical discipline focused on the practical reversal of the aging process. Rejuvenation is distinct from life extension. Life extension strategies often study the causes of aging and try to oppose those causes in order to slow ...

therapies for humans, and investment and regulatory aspects of the

longevity The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...

industry.

Crowdfunding platform

LEAF’s non-profit crowdfunding platform ''Lifespan.io'' is dedicated to supporting fundamental and early-stage studies on aging. it helped to collect over $390,000 in support of eight research projects, including three projects by SENS Research Foundation - OncoSENS, MitoSENS and MitoMouse.

Outreach and advocacy

LEAF maintains a variety of outreach activities. Members of the organizations give talks at scientific and public events, appear on television, and give press interviews. In 2017 and 2018, as a part of its outreach activities, LEAF provided scientific advice to help the YouTube channels

Kurzgesagt Kurzgesagt (; German for "In a nutshell" or "in a few words") is a German-made animation and design studio founded by Philipp Dettmer. The studio's YouTube channel focuses on minimalist animated educational content, using the flat and 3D design ...

, Life Noggin, and

CGP Grey CGP Grey is an American-Irish educational YouTuber, podcaster, and live streamer who creates short explanatory videos on subjects including politics, geography, economics, sociology, history, and culture. In addition to video production, Grey ...

create educational popular science videos about biological aging and the potential of regenerative medicine.

References

External links