28th February Newsletter
Hi guys. This is the second newsletter from the Institute of Rejuvenation Science (ICR). In these newsletters, we will tell you what we've done, since the last newsletter, to accelerate the development of rejuvenation science.
Reproduction of the rat rejuvenation experiment has already been scheduled
The experiment to rejuvenate rats already has a date: June 2026. That's when the rats we have access to will be 25 months old. This experiment is a reproduction of Harold Katcher's experiment described in the Geroscience article in October 2023. To carry out this experiment, we need old Sprague-Dawley rats, precisely 25 months old. We looked for these aged animals at various universities and companies in Brazil and around the world, but in the end, our best option was to use animals from the animal facility at Unicamp, our partner university. These animals are 9.5 months old and were going to be sacrificed. As we are going to use them in the experiment, we need to wait until they are 25 months old. Since these animals will be kept alive, in practice the experiment has already begun, as the university staff is already working on caring for the animals, who are also being transported from the university's central animal facility to the Institute of Biology.
Budget defined
As we set the date for the experiment, we also set the total budget. The experiment will cost a total of US$ 75,000, of which US$ 50,000 will be paid to Unicamp for the execution of its part of the experiment, and US$ 25,000 will fund the part of the experiment to be carried out by the ICR. Some of the initial costs are already being spent, such as transporting the rats and caring for the animals.
And how much of this budget do we already have? The ICR is a non-profit organization and we are seeking donations from the general public and institutions. Ideally, we would like to fund this experiment collectively. And all donations that come into the ICR, whether one-off or recurring, are going directly towards funding this experiment. So far we have two pledges from two institutions, one for US$ 10,000 and another for US$ 25,000, and we have also financial contributions from the general public. To contribute financially, just click here.
As a way of publicizing the institute's activities and the science of rejuvenation, we are producing videos and posts on our social networks. You can follow us on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Ethics Committee for the Use of Animals
Another activity that we are already carrying out as part of the rat rejuvenation experiment is filling out the necessary documents to be sent to the Ethics Committee for the Use of Animals at Unicamp, which is where the animals will be kept and where the treatment will be applied. The Ethics Commitee must approve the experiment before it can be carried out, and guarantees that the animals will be treated in the best possible way.
Partnership with Unicamp
Another bureaucratic activity we are carrying out is filling out the necessary documents for the partnership with Unicamp. In the last experiment, in 2024, the ICR hired Unicamp as a service provider. However, in this next experiment, as it is a larger and more complex experiment, we are going to establish a partnership agreement with Unicamp, detailing what activities each party will carry out. However, the ICR and the university are already carrying out some activities even before the agreement documentation is finalized.
Pigs
Now that we have a date set for the experiment and the rats are guaranteed, our focus is on finding pigs. In the previous experiment, in 2024, we only needed a single animal, so it was relatively simple to find an animal that was raised in the way described in Harold Katcher's article, i.e. a free-range animal. However, in this next experiment, we will need 10 animals, which should be around 7 months old at the time of slaughter. We will then collect the animals' blood in order to extract the PPEPs that will be injected into the rats. These animals ideally need to be free-range and fed as naturally as possible.
As there are still many months before the experiment takes place, we have time to talk to farmers. We are therefore contacting pig breeders and veterinarians who specialize in pig farming.
The ICR in the media
Recently, the Fight Aging! website published an article about the ICR and the rat rejuvenation experiment, helping us to spread the word about the institute's activities.
Paypal
The ICR now has a Paypal account. Initially we didn't have Paypal as a way of donating because we didn't think it was necessary. However, a donor contacted us saying that he would prefer to donate via Paypal, so we set up a Paypal account and now we have this alternative for receiving donations.
This is a collective effort
This experiment is a collective effort to reproduce Harold Katcher's seminal study, in which the ICR relies on the contribution of those interested in the realization of the experiment. Thus, if you know someone who might be interested in the content of this newsletter, you can forward it to them. Also, if you are not yet a financial contributor of the ICR, we invite you to become one by clicking on this link.
So that's it. We're carrying on, and we won't rest until we've implemented rejuvenation in human beings. See you next time!