LongeCity Newsletter
May 2011
Message from the Chairman:
This newsletter is all about scientific research
and its funding. Last newsletter, I told you about our
science initiative
- this effort to
join up the various science and research strands at LongeCity is
so important that I have included a reminder in case anyone missed
it.
By now, very few readers will need reminding about our fundraiser for research into
Microglia Stem Cells, on which
there are some new developments.
While we hope to get this fundraiser
wrapped up very soon, it is important not to loose sight of previously
funded projects - consequently, the first ever LongeCity podcast
brings you an update on the first ever community research fundraiser.
It
is also important to remain alert to new opportunities to promote life
extension research, big or small. As an example, take the
'wrapping' contest by a Mexican Restaurant chain that community
member Kelsey has stumbled upon. I think that's a great prompt to
all of us: as we go through life, the challenge is to keep an agile mind
to seize opportunities to preserve it.
Caliban
NEWS
-------------------------------
LongeCity broadcast reloaded
We have decided to broaden the ways that you can get info from LongeCity by
adding a podcast. Recordings of Mind's LongeCity chat show will be made
available for you to listen to at your leisure.
The first podcast is now available: It features an interview and overview of
LongeCity's first ever community science research fundraiser: the
Laser Ablation of the
age-pigment Lipofuscin studies by Nason Schooler.
Also have a look at our Videos page for accompanying content.
>>
Listen here
If you have any suggestions for guests and topics for future podcasts
please share them here.
-------------------------------
Support Kelsey
Moody's
bid to win money
for research!
Kelsey Moody (kmoody),
a long-standing community member has entered a competition
by a Mexican Restaurant Chain to "Wrap What You Love" in gold foil. If he
wins, he pledges that 100% of winnings will be used to support material
costs (not salaries) of projects related to aging and age-related disease.
Today marks the last day of the first round. If he gets further, Kelsey will
need our support and we'll be cheering him on!
Why are we highlighting such initiatives? Its not that we think these are the key to getting funding, (or even that we stand a terrific chance of
success here), but for different reasons:
Firstly, these initiatives require a minimum of effort from contributors: a
registration and a few clicks. You may take this as a bad thing:
encouraging complacency and the notion that 'it doesn't take much'. But
consider how projects like this are great to 'bring in the bystanders'.
People who are sympathetic but may not have lifted a finger for our common cause before, are
slowly getting into the habit with these easy-to-do actions.
Secondly, this is a great illustration of someone being
'switched on' and creative regarding opportunities to advance our mission. I imagine Kelsey went to buy a burrito,
saw the competition advert and was inspired to not let it pass but to try to
turn it to something useful. An initiative and example like this reminds
everyone to keep
their eyes open for those everyday opportunities, to share them on
LongeCity and beyond.
>>
Kelsey's entry
-------------------------------
Microglia Stem
Cell Funding News
For many months we have been raising money for LongeCity's most
ambitious research project yet:
'The Microglia Stem Cell project'
to investigate a novel potential treatment for combating neurodegeneration
and Alzheimer's to be conducted in
Mondey's
lab.
Invigorating donation thankfully received
For a couple of weeks, the fundraiser seemed to be languishing,
with little progress. Then we received a generous donation $1000 from
Matthew Tagg (matt79)
the CEO of WebAfrica and a
LongeCity Member since December 2010. Matt had recently started a thoughtful
and interesting
discussion in the internal Immortality Institute forum in which he is
questioning whether and when we should be accepting sponsorship from commercial entities.
(Members, feel fee to chime on on that topic!). With his donation, Matt has put 'his money where his mouth is' in support of
more community-sourced founding.
This donation (coupled with previous generous
contributions by P.Amoroso (n25philly),
D.Kekich (kekich)
and
many, many others) has re-invigorated the fundraiser to the extent that
we are now very optimistic about achieving the goal. Maybe you'd like to
join
this initiative to make it happen!
Strapped for cash? Donate your LongeCity points!
If YOU want to contribute more to the effort, but really don't have a dime
to spare, you might want to consider the following option: all forum users and volunteers
are enrolled in a ‘Thank You’ point scheme which rewards good contributions. 'Thank You' or '₮' points are handed out as a gesture
of appreciation and can be converted at our 'virtual
store' for fun items or some small
prizes - including free membership, gift vouchers, or even seed
capital to start your own matching fundraiser.
You can now donate these points to our Treasurer and they will be converted into research at a rate of ₮10=$1 - and
that's subject to the standard matching, so for a limited time only, every 10
Thank You points are worth $2 in this context!
>> Project
Page
-------------------------------
Science initiative!
As a reminder, LongeCity plans to consolidate and improve its science support
and information activities.
We want construct a better approach to tap into
the bright scientific minds in the community and use that expertise for
initiatives like:
-- more grants for innovative science and better monitoring of
existing projects
-- create a database of expertise, so that we can help to
foster collaboration and support networks
-- offer friendly peer review from business plans to grant
proposals, draft papers, coursework
-- better ways of highlighting new info on funding and
scientific breakthroughs
-- sharing information from electronic subscriptions to
laboratory protocols
-- careers: Linking project students with supervisors, job opportunities
The initiative is open to scientists, students, and
recognised experts. If you are interested in contributing in any way,
>>
please add your name here (tick 'yes' if this applies to you).
-------------------------------
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