Company

Methuselah Foundation

Last updated 2026-05-30· 1 min read

Reviewed by the Ultimate Longevity Bible editorial team. Educational reference — not medical advice. See disclaimer.

What it is

Methuselah Foundation is a US non-profit established in 2000 by David Gobel and Aubrey de Grey (before de Grey founded the separate SENS Research Foundation in 2009). Methuselah pioneered the use of incentive prizes to accelerate longevity research.

Notable initiatives

Methuselah Mouse Prize (Mprize): cash prize for the team that extends mouse lifespan by the largest margin. Several payouts over the years, including for rapamycin and dietary restriction work.
NewOrgan Prize: incentive for tissue-engineering breakthroughs.
Various early-stage longevity-biotech seed investments.
Educational and field-building work.

Why it’s here

Methuselah is a historical bridge between pre-2000 academic gerontology and the modern longevity-biotech industry. The Mprize in particular shifted attention to mammalian lifespan-extension testing — which eventually contributed to the methodological standards now embodied in the NIA ITP.

Historical role

Founded in 2003 by Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel, the Methuselah Foundation was one of the earliest institutions organising capital and scientific attention around anti-aging biology at time when the field was largely academic and unfashionable.

Mission and programmes

Methuselah Mouse Prize (M-prize): prize for extending mouse lifespan; catalysed the early ITP-adjacent longevity work.
New Organ Alliance: prize for tissue-engineering advances.
Foundation grants to early-stage aging biology and regenerative medicine.
Investment vehicle for spinning out targeted damage-repair biotechs (see Cyclarity below).

Continuing relevance

The Foundation's damage-decomposition framing — that aging is a collection of accumulated damage categories each amenable to targeted engineering solutions — remains one of the most influential intellectual scaffolds in the field, even as the specifics have been refined.