Contest Offering $1 Million in Prize Money Asks Researchers to ‘Cure Aging’
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shironosov/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(PALO ALTO, Calif.) — A California radiologist who heads the Palo Alto Institute is sponsoring a $1 million life science competition aimed at finding a way to “hack the code” of life.
The Palo Alto Prize is a competition dedicated to “ending aging,” according to the website. Sponsored by Dr. Joon Yun, a contributor to Forbes magazine and a board certified radiologist, the competition is offering two $500,000 prizes to teams that can either revert an aging reference animal to the biological equivalent of a young adult, or extend the lifespan of a reference animal by 50 percent of published norms.
The contest judges teams based on their ability to, “hack the code of life and cure aging” and potentially alter homeostatic capacity, or, “the capability of an animal’s systems to self-stabilize in response to stressors.”
The contest launched on Tuesday, and the end of the two prize windows will be on June 15, 2016 for the prize for restoring a mammal to a younger state, and Sept. 9, 2018 for the life extension prize.
The website for the Palo Alto Prize says that the money represents an incentive to, “nurture innovations that end aging by restoring the body’s homeostatic capacity and promoting the extension of a sustained and healthy lifespan.”
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