Official Team Roster Announced In The $1M Palo Alto Prize
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The $1M Palo Alto Prize announced today the names of the ten teams that have officially registered for the Palo Alto Longevity Demonstration Prize, a three year global competition sponsored by Dr. Joon Yun that challenges teams from all over the world to "hack the aging code" to improve our health and extend lifespan.
The Palo Alto Longevity Demonstration Prize is a $500,000 life science competition and is part one of two prizes, which total $1M. The goal of the prize is to foster innovations that will ultimately help people live significantly healthier and longer lives as a result of better health. The winning team must develop, implement and demonstrate a method of extending the lifespan of an animal by 50%.
"The current healthcare system is doing a remarkable job of addressing the diseases of aging," said Dr. Joon Yun, sponsor of the Palo Alto Longevity Prize and President of Palo Alto Investors, LLC. "However, doing so without solving the underlying process of aging produces escalating effects on health care spending. We need a paradigmatic revolution."
"We are excited with the quality of teams that we have participating from all over the world that have signed up to compete for the prize," said Keith Powers, President & Founder of the Race Against Time Foundation, the foundation administering the prize, "and we are encouraged by the variety of proposed approaches which include (but are not limited to) stem cells, genetic modification, modified messenger RNA encoding telomerase, modulation of peripheral metabolism, PAI-1 signaling, and manipulation of nested biorhythms."
Teams are participating from top universities and labs from the US and all over the world including the UK, Germany, Japan and India. A complete list of teams and short videos about each team can be found at www.PaloAltoPrize.com.
"The Palo Alto Prize has galvanized our scientific community to think hard about how our fundamental insights into the mechanisms of aging can be leveraged toward transformative therapies," expressed Dr. John P. Cooke from Houston Methodist Research Institute whose approach is based on modified messenger RNA encoding telomerase.
Dr. Navtej Toor from UC San Diego, who is working on a genetic modification solution, added, "We now have the tools of molecular biology to treat the biochemical basis of aging by targeting many of the known pathways involved in this process."
The Palo Alto Prize, the X PRIZE Foundation and the Breakthrough Prize Awards are part of a growing trend of leveraging incentive prizes and awards to foster scientific breakthroughs and to bring awareness to the wonderful work that scientists and innovators are doing all over the world.
About the Race Against Time Foundation
The Race Against Time dba The Hero Science Foundation (www.herosf.org) is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization (Tax ID: 47-2823482) created to raise public awareness and financial support for basic biomedical research related to increasing our health span and defining the fundamental biological mechanisms that prevent age-related diseases and disabilities. The Palo Alto Prize is a newly established Silicon Valley-based initiative of the Race Against Time Foundation. The mission of the Palo Alto Prize is to encourage collaboration, foster innovation, and build a community to address the underlying causes of aging. www.PaloAltoPrize.com
About Dr. Joon Yun
Joon Yun, M.D., is the President of Palo Alto Investors, LLC, founded in 1989 with over $1 billion in assets under management invested in healthcare and the founder of the Palo Alto Institute, a nonprofit think-tank that has been providing operational support for the Palo Alto Prize. Board certified in radiology, Dr. Yun served on the clinical staff at Stanford Hospital from 2000-2006. Dr. Yun received his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Harvard University and his Doctor of Medicine from Duke University School of Medicine.
For more information:
Jennifer Alden
[email protected]
650.569.1010
www.paloaltoprize.com
SOURCE Race Against Time Foundation
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