[DIYbio] Longecity: a crowdfunding strategy worth watching

As various entities like Microryza try to crack the science crowdfunding nut, I've long thought that the Longecity community science support program is something to watch and learn from:

http://www.longecity.org/forum/page/index2.html/_/feature/scifaq

It is small, grassroots, very focused on the longevity science community, and funds one or two sub-$30K projects a year. That seems to be about the outflow that this particular subcommunity can produce comfortably. For this much money you can do something meaningful if you fund a group with access to a modern lab and a project plan that spans six months to a year. Last year, for example, Longecity supporters funded a microglia transplant study in mice to gather more data on what this might be able to do to address neurodegeneration:

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/05/updates-on-the-longecity-crowdfunded-microglia-study.php

This year they are teaming up with some of the SENS Research Foundation folk to raise funds for a discrete project in the larger research program of allotopic expression of mitochondria genes, done to rescue loss of cellular function resulting from damage to some of the more vital mitochondrial genes. This is one of the root causes of aging:

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/05/updates-on-the-longecity-crowdfunded-microglia-study.php

You'll probably find the PDF research brief interesting - it's only available to Longecity members at the moment, but here's a copy:

https://www.fightaging.org/pdf/longecity_2013_mitochondrial_repair_research_brief.pdf

"Our six month goal is two-fold. First, we will create cells that are null for two mitochondrial genes: CyBand ATP8. Second, we will "cure" the cells by inserting engineered versions of CyB and ATP8 into the nuclear genome, rather than the mitochondrial genome, and then target the functional protein into the mitochondria."

They are looking to raise $7000 from the community, with Longecity matching another $14,000 - that's the sort of scale they operate on at this point. Much of that will go on reagents, and as an aside, I had no idea that the price of reagents is quite so ruinous. There have to be some infrastructure gains and good business opportunities to be made in that area somewhere. I refuse to believe that those prices can continue to be so high when the cost of equipment is plummetting.

So I donated $1000 to this project. I think it's very worthwhile.

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For those who have little interest in this research, I'll return to my original point. I think the science funding initiative that the Longecity folk are carving out with the help of an interested community is something well worth looking over and learning from. I believe that this is the future of a substantial fraction of research funding: breaking out scores of small projects from large goals and crowdfunding them step by step. Not just for the long tail, but also in the process of building tomorrow's massive research monoliths, gathering widespread public support at the same time as gather seed funds, the outset of pulling in institutional support.

Reason