 | This biographical article is written like a résumé .(June 2022) |
David Gobel | |
|---|---|
 Gobel | |
| Born | 1952 |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Co-founder and CEO of the Methuselah Foundation |
David Gobel (born 1952 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American philanthropist, entrepreneur, inventor, and futurist. He is co-founder and CEO of the Methuselah Foundation, CEO of the Methuselah Fund, and one of the first to publicly advance the idea of longevity escape velocity, even before this term was formulated. [1]
David Gobel heads the Methuselah Foundation, [2] a medical charity that was organized in 2000 and is based in Springfield, VA. Under Gobel's leadership, Methuselah has invested millions of dollars to support research and development in regenerative medicine, regenerative medicine, [3] and is actively involved in efforts to change how the public thinks about extending the healthy human lifespan.
With co-founders Dane Gobel and Aubrey de Grey, Gobel established Methuselah in order to, as stated on its original website, "shed light on the processes of aging and find ways to extend healthy life." [3]
The organization works in a variety of ways: Incubating companies that are developing breakthrough technologies, supporting mission-relevant ventures that promote longevity research, funding such research directly and supporting projects and prizes to accelerate breakthroughs in longevity. iii
Through Methuselah, Gobel, and de Grey established research programs focused on advanced human bioremedial biology at Rice University and Arizona State University—the world's first use of environmental remediation techniques to be directed at reversing "pollution" in human cells. [4]
Gobel also oversaw Methuselah's funding of the 2015 sequencing of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, which can live more than 200 years. The objective of this work was to identify any protective molecular adaptations within the species that may be relevant to age-related diseases, particularly cancer. iv
In 2021, Methuselah contributed $1 million to Albert Einstein College of Medicine to fund the development of engineered replacement brain structures to correct age-related neurological damage without losing memories or self identity. v vi
Gobel has directed Methuselah's investment in a variety of companies developing breakthrough technologies and clinical interventions in regenerative medicine. These companies include:
Under Gobel, Methuselah has sponsored several competitions to encourage scientific innovation that can benefit longevity:
In addition, Gobel has overseen Methuselah's investment in and support of organizations whose mission has been to promote an environment that is supportive of life extension, including:
Gobel was instrumental in the 2007 creation of a new rejuvenation research program called "Strategies for engineered negligible senescence" (SENS), to help identify, repair and remove cell-level damage before it causes systemic harm. Though Methuselah continues to provide support for years, SENS spun out as the independent SENS Research Foundation in 2009, and continues its work to use regenerative medicine to repair the damage underlying the diseases of aging.
As Chief Venture Strategist in the Office of Security Operations at TSA from 2002 to 2013, Gobel proposed, designed, and operated the Department of Homeland Security's first venture capital arm, which was focused on nurturing companies and technologies to modernize and automate security for the country.
He was responsible for multiple investments in cutting-edge security capabilities, including the VOXER iPhone app [14] [15] and the world's first hand-held mass spectrometer (aka 'Tricorder') [16]
He also conceived and co-designed the IdeaFactory, DHS’s innovation management system. Using "wisdom of crowds" principles and bottom-up techniques to bring the experience and intelligence of 170,000 employees to bear on critical problems of security, efficiency and public service, IdeaFactory is featured on whitehouse.gov as an example of government innovation. [17]
During his tenure at TSA, Gobel helped design and develop numerous other programs, including TSA’s Red Cell counter-terrorism group, the Arena XXI transportation security system, the Virtual Continuity of Operations conops, [18] and TSA’s Information Technology Management Council.
Gobel is co-founder of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation. [19]
He developed corporate and technology strategy at Eyegaze, [20] a company that develops an advance eye-driven communication device.
From 1996 to 2002, Gobel was president of Obvious Software LLC, a venture project to design and build the world’s first fully independent artificial intelligence robotic online professional stock trading system. He also developed VastMind, a cloud-enabled parallel processing grid computing application to utilize wasted CPU cycles in broadband and LAN connected computers. [21]
He co-founded Starbright in 1995, partnering with Steven Spielberg, Intel, Sprint, and Tandem Computers to design and create Starbright World, a broadband network that allowed sick kids at thousands of homes and over 110 children's hospitals to "go out and play" in a rich virtual world where they can communicate with friends and family. [22]
He is also co-inventor of World's, Inc., one of the internet’s earliest shared 3D virtual worlds using avatar-based communication. [23] [24]
As co-founder and vice president of Knowledge Adventure, Inc. (1991–1994), Gobel invented "mouse movies" (now known as non-linear video) in which the movement of the user's mouse would link non-linearly to a database of video frames. At Knowledge Adventure, Gobel produced and directed 6 best-selling multimedia titles, including "3D Body Adventure," "Buzz Aldrin's Space Adventure," "Science Adventure," "America Adventure," "Bug Adventure," and "The Discoverers" by Daniel J. Boorstin. [25]
An artificial organ is a human made organ device or tissue that is implanted or integrated into a human — interfacing with living tissue — to replace a natural organ, to duplicate or augment a specific function or functions so the patient may return to a normal life as soon as possible. The replaced function does not have to be related to life support, but it often is. For example, replacement bones and joints, such as those found in hip replacements, could also be considered artificial organs.
Tissue engineering is a biomedical engineering discipline that uses a combination of cells, engineering, materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to restore, maintain, improve, or replace different types of biological tissues. Tissue engineering often involves the use of cells placed on tissue scaffolds in the formation of new viable tissue for a medical purpose, but is not limited to applications involving cells and tissue scaffolds. While it was once categorized as a sub-field of biomaterials, having grown in scope and importance, it can be considered as a field of its own.
Strategies for engineered negligible senescence (SENS) is a range of proposed regenerative medical therapies, either planned or currently in development, for the periodic repair of all age-related damage to human tissue. These therapies have the ultimate aim of maintaining a state of negligible senescence in patients and postponing age-associated disease. SENS was first defined by British biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey. Many mainstream scientists believe that it is a fringe theory. De Grey later highlighted similarities and differences of SENS to subsequent categorization systems of the biology of aging, such as the highly influential Hallmarks of Aging published in 2013.
Regenerative medicine deals with the "process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human or animal cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function". This field holds the promise of engineering damaged tissues and organs by stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to functionally heal previously irreparable tissues or organs.
Organ printing utilizes techniques similar to conventional 3D printing where a computer model is fed into a printer that lays down successive layers of plastics or wax until a 3D object is produced. In the case of organ printing, the material being used by the printer is a biocompatible plastic. The biocompatible plastic forms a scaffold that acts as the skeleton for the organ that is being printed. As the plastic is being laid down, it is also seeded with human cells from the patient's organ that is being printed for. After printing, the organ is transferred to an incubation chamber to give the cells time to grow. After a sufficient amount of time, the organ is implanted into the patient.
Following is a list of topics related to life extension:
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to life extension:
Anthony Atala is an American bioengineer, urologist, and pediatric surgeon. He is the W.H. Boyce professor of urology, the founding director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. His work focuses on the science of regenerative medicine: "a practice that aims to refurbish diseased or damaged tissue using the body's own healthy cells".
The Methuselah Foundation is an American-based global non-profit organization based in Springfield, Virginia, with a declared mission to "make 90 the new 50 by 2030" by supporting tissue engineering and regenerative medicine therapies. The organization was originally incorporated by David Gobel in 2001 as the Performance Prize Society, a name inspired by the British governments Longitude Act, which offered monetary rewards for anyone who could devise a portable, practical solution for determining a ship's longitude.
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, US. The organization publishes its reports annually.
Sangeeta N. Bhatia is an American biological engineer and the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Bhatia's research investigates applications of micro- and nano-technology for tissue repair and regeneration. She applies ideas from computer technology and engineering to the design of miniaturized biomedical tools for the study and treatment of diseases, in particular liver disease, hepatitis, malaria and cancer.
MIRA is a multidisciplinary and complementary method for treating many chronic diseases. The MIRA Procedure is a result of combining efforts from different medical fields developed in the University of Chicago in 1992. It basically consists in medically grafting live rejuvenated tissue in the form of autologous adipose adult stem cells to a damaged organ in order to restore it and improve its function. This method is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
An organ-on-a-chip (OOC) is a multi-channel 3-D microfluidic cell culture, integrated circuit (chip) that simulates the activities, mechanics and physiological response of an entire organ or an organ system. It constitutes the subject matter of significant biomedical engineering research, more precisely in bio-MEMS. The convergence of labs-on-chips (LOCs) and cell biology has permitted the study of human physiology in an organ-specific context. By acting as a more sophisticated in vitro approximation of complex tissues than standard cell culture, they provide the potential as an alternative to animal models for drug development and toxin testing.
Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is the use of 3D printing–like techniques to combine cells, growth factors, bio-inks, and biomaterials to fabricate functional structures that were traditionally used for tissue engineering applications but in recent times have seen increased interest in other applications such as biosensing, and environmental remediation. Generally, 3D bioprinting uses a layer-by-layer method to deposit materials known as bio-inks to create tissue-like structures that are later used in various medical and tissue engineering fields. 3D bioprinting covers a broad range of bioprinting techniques and biomaterials. Currently, bioprinting can be used to print tissue and organ models to help research drugs and potential treatments. Nonetheless, translation of bioprinted living cellular constructs into clinical application is met with several issues due to the complexity and cell number necessary to create functional organs. However, innovations span from bioprinting of extracellular matrix to mixing cells with hydrogels deposited layer by layer to produce the desired tissue. In addition, 3D bioprinting has begun to incorporate the printing of scaffolds which can be used to regenerate joints and ligaments. Apart from these, 3D bioprinting has recently been used in environmental remediation applications, including the fabrication of functional biofilms that host functional microorganisms that can facilitate pollutant removal.
Organovo Holdings, Inc. is an early-stage medical laboratory and research company which designs and develops functional, three dimensional human tissue for medical research and therapeutic applications. Organovo was established in 2007 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. The company uses its internally developed NovoGen MMX Bioprinter for 3D bioprinting.
Regeneration in humans is the regrowth of lost tissues or organs in response to injury. This is in contrast to wound healing, or partial regeneration, which involves closing up the injury site with some gradation of scar tissue. Some tissues such as skin, the vas deferens, and large organs including the liver can regrow quite readily, while others have been thought to have little or no capacity for regeneration following an injury.
This timeline lists notable events in the history of research into senescence or biological aging, including the research and development of life extension methods, brain aging delay methods and rejuvenation.
Microgravity bioprinting is the utilization of 3D bioprinting techniques under microgravity conditions to fabricate highly complex, functional tissue and organ structures. The zero gravity environment circumvents some of the current limitations of bioprinting on Earth including magnetic field disruption and biostructure retention during the printing process. Microgravity bioprinting is one of the initial steps to advancing in space exploration and colonization while furthering the possibilities of regenerative medicine.
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University focused on bridging the gap between academia and industry by drawing inspiration from nature's design principles to solve challenges in health care and the environment. It is focused on the field of biologically inspired engineering to be distinct from bioengineering and biomedical engineering. The institute also has a focus on applications, intellectual property generation, and commercialization.
Kelly Stevens is an American bioengineer and associate professor at the University of Washington. Her research considers the study and development of human platforms to understand and treat disease. She was named a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Fellow in 2022.