An anonymous donor, recognizing the promise and potential of serious antiaging research, has added one million dollars to the coffers of the Methuselah Mouse Prize overnight. As a result, the cash prize has increased to nearly three million, far outweighing end-of-year expectations.

The anonymous $1 million donor cited a growing understanding of the real possibility of curing aging in our lifetimes as his reason for making such a tremendous investment. He first learned about de Grey’s work from the popular press, even though most journalists take the easy path of characterizing de Grey – a respected, widely published figure in the scientific community – as an odd eccentric. The donor followed the Fight Aging! blog ( http://www.fightaging.org ) and the online newsletter of The Longevity Meme ( http://www.longevitymeme.org ), both advocates of de Grey’s work and the Mprize in particular. In the Mprize, this donor saw a popular movement in the making, a movement of people who were not to be discouraged by the conservatism and lack of action in ivory tower gerontology. Every dollar in the prize fund represents a voice, calling for the scientific community to take the final steps towards real, working anti-aging medicine.



So, as many others have done, this anonymous donor realized that he could help the Mprize and thus help the fight against degenerative aging and age-related disease – medical conditions that claim more than 100,000 lives each and every day. So he sent a cashier’s check to the address listed on the Mprize website – a check for $1 million.



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