Perspectives on Innovation

InnoCentive President and CEO Dwayne Spradlin

Last week we attended The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Human Potential conference in New York City. As you may recall, InnoCentive is the chosen Challenge Partner for this series of Economist conferences. I am writing to share with you some of the energy and outcomes from that conference and to tell you a bit more about the role played by InnoCentive.

Over the summer, InnoCentive and The Economist ran an Ideation Challenge on InnoCentive.com looking for fresh ideas to enable a 21st Century Cyber-school to educate the next billion students born in developing countries with insufficient access to educational opportunities. The Challenge was advertised on numerous Economist communication vehicles including print advertisements and web-based promotion. Overall we received over 1200 project rooms and 119 submissions. Ultimately one Solver was chosen to receive the $10,000 award and to be highlighted at the Human Potential conference in New York. (more…)

VIDEO: Dr. Aubrey DeGrey at TEDMed 2009

We recently posted a Challenge in conjunction with the SENS Foundation, an organization that was founded to develop, promote and ensure widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging.  This Challenge is seeking innovative ideas to help reverse age related illnesses, specifically in conjunction with the buildup of glucosepane. A solution to this Challenge could allow humans to live longer, healthier lives. We asked Dr. Aubrey DeGrey, Chief Science Officer for the SENS Foundation, to talk to us a bit about this Challenge and the impact that a solution would have on human lives.

Your Challenge is seeking a method for breaking down glucosepane, which is a major cause of age-related illness.  Can you tell us why this has been such a difficult problem to solve?

Glucosepane is a spontaneously-formed chemical modification that affects proteins.  Some proteins in the body, especially those that make up the “extracellular matrix” (the network that holds our cells in place), are created early in life and stay in place for decades, so they accumulate a lot of glucosepane. This affects the flexibility and elasticity of the matrix, which can cause problems like hypertension.  But glucosepane is chemically rather stable, so it has been hard to identify any drug that can break or remove it.  Maybe we need to be more creative.

How quickly do you think a solution could be put into practice and actually have an impact on human lives?

That depends very much on the nature of the solution, because (for example) a drug that has already been approved for other uses can be approved for a new use much more quickly than a new drug can.  But in some scenarios I think we could be talking about only a few years.

One of the consequences of a successful response to this Challenge, and of the SENS Foundation’s work on rejuvenation biotechnologies in general, is the maintenance of human health throughout life.  If the Glucosepane Challenge is solved, how would it contribute to keeping us healthy as we go through life? (more…)