About Methuselean Research
1.0 What is Methuselean Research?
Methuselean Research (MR) is a research organization focused on scientific questions related to human health and longevity, with an initial emphasis on laboratory-based research and testing. MR may work with researchers, physicians, hospitals, laboratories, and other organizations to investigate important scientific questions and develop practical methods for testing them.
When conducting research projects, our purpose is not to begin with a conclusion and find evidence to support it. We begin with a question: Is there a plausible hypothesis here that can be tested? If so, we work to identify the evidence needed to test it and the most practical way to obtain that evidence.
Our first research project applies this approach to the Toxin Sequestration Theory of cancer (TST).
1.1 Why the Name Methuselean?
The name Methuselean is derived from Methuselah, the biblical figure traditionally associated with extraordinary longevity. According to the Book of Genesis, Methuselah lived 969 years, making his name an enduring cultural symbol of exceptional human lifespan.
Methuselean Research uses the name not as a prediction of how long humans can or should live, but as an expression of aspiration. Our interest is in scientific research that may help people live longer and healthier lives by improving our understanding of the biological and environmental factors that affect human health and longevity. The name Methuselean reflects that long-term objective: to investigate questions whose answers may help preserve life, extend healthy lifespan, and improve human health.
2.0 How Methuselean Research Conducts Research
Methuselean Research is designed to use whatever combination of expertise, facilities, technologies, and other resources is most appropriate for the research question being investigated. MR may work with universities, hospitals, commercial laboratories, independent research facilities, individual researchers, or other organizations with the specialized capabilities a project requires. Where appropriate, we may also develop research capabilities of our own.
Our objective is not to prescribe in advance where research must be conducted, but to identify important research questions, develop practical ways to test them, assemble the necessary expertise and resources, and make the resulting evidence available for further scientific evaluation.
Depending upon the project, this may include:
- reviewing existing scientific literature and identifying unanswered questions;
- developing specific, testable hypotheses;
- designing research protocols and determining what evidence would support or challenge a hypothesis;
- working with physicians, researchers, laboratories, and other specialists;
- developing procedures for collecting, preserving, and transporting biological samples;
- arranging appropriate laboratory analysis, including independent third-party testing;
- comparing results with appropriate controls and existing scientific evidence;
- reporting findings, including results that do not support the original hypothesis; and
- using those findings to determine what questions should be investigated next.
The guiding principle is straightforward: use the resources best suited to answering the scientific question while using research funds responsibly.
3.0 Developing Research Capabilities
Methuselean Research expects initially to make extensive use of existing laboratories and research facilities. Modern scientific laboratories can require highly specialized equipment, facilities, personnel, and substantial capital investment. When an existing laboratory can perform the required work to appropriate scientific standards, using that capability may be considerably more efficient than duplicating it.
That does not mean MR will always rely upon outside laboratories.
As our research develops, we may encounter analytical methods, testing requirements, or research protocols for which suitable outside capabilities are unavailable or impractical. In those circumstances, developing our own laboratory facilities may become the most effective way to pursue the research. The decision should be driven by the requirements of the science, the availability of appropriate outside resources, and responsible stewardship of research funds.
An MR laboratory could also serve purposes beyond our own projects. Specialized capabilities developed to answer our research questions could potentially be made available to other researchers, healthcare organizations, or commercial clients. Revenue from those services could help offset the cost of establishing and operating the laboratory while expanding access to useful research capabilities.
Whether a particular capability is developed internally or obtained externally is therefore not a matter of organizational philosophy. It is a practical decision based upon what best enables the research to be conducted rigorously, efficiently, and responsibly.
4.0 Looking Where Others May Not Be Looking
Scientific progress sometimes comes not from inventing a new instrument or discovering an entirely new source of evidence, but from asking a different question about evidence that is already available.
Our first project provides a good example.
Tumors are routinely removed from patients and examined by pathologists. Those examinations appropriately look for characteristics important to cancer diagnosis and treatment. But if TST is correct that tumors may sometimes function as biological containment structures that concentrate substances the body is attempting to isolate, an additional question becomes important:
What substances are actually concentrated within the tumor?
That is a different question from those normally asked during routine pathological examination.
Methuselean Research is interested in questions like this—questions for which potentially valuable evidence may already exist but has not necessarily been examined from the perspective of a particular hypothesis.
5.0 From Hypothesis to Evidence
A promising hypothesis is a reason to conduct research. It is not a reason to assume the hypothesis is correct.
MR therefore seeks research questions capable of producing meaningful evidence for or against the hypothesis being investigated.
The process is iterative. Initial studies may support a hypothesis, contradict it, reveal that the original question was poorly framed, or uncover something entirely unexpected. Each result helps determine the next question.
A negative result can therefore be scientifically valuable. So can an ambiguous one. The objective is not simply to accumulate evidence supporting an idea; it is to progressively reduce uncertainty.
6.0 Independent Testing and Scientific Integrity
Independence is particularly important when an organization has invested time, effort, and resources in investigating a hypothesis.
Methuselean Research recognizes that risk.
Where practical, MR intends to use qualified independent laboratories and researchers to perform or verify important analyses. Separating the organization developing a hypothesis from those performing critical measurements can provide an additional safeguard against conscious or unconscious bias.
Methuselean Research intends to publish and otherwise make available the significant results of its research, including findings that do not support the hypotheses being investigated. Wherever practical, research methods, analytical procedures, data, and other information needed to evaluate or reproduce those findings should also be made available. Scientific results become more valuable when other researchers can examine them critically, attempt to replicate them, identify weaknesses, and build upon what has been learned.
The credibility of a research organization should not depend upon how often its hypotheses prove correct. It should depend upon how rigorously it determines whether they are correct.
7.0 Our First Research Project: TST
The first major research project of Methuselean Research is the Toxin Sequestration Theory of cancer (TST), originated by Dr. Patrick Coles.
TST proposes that tumors may serve, in whole or in part, as biological containment structures through which the body sequesters potentially harmful substances away from more vulnerable tissues.
This is a significant hypothesis. If it is wrong, careful testing should help establish that. If it is partly correct, research should help determine under what circumstances it applies. And if important aspects of the theory are supported by evidence, the implications for cancer research could warrant much broader investigation.
Our immediate objective is therefore not to declare TST proven, but to help test its predictions directly and systematically.
8.0 Research Begins with a Question
Many important discoveries begin with a simple observation:
What if we have not been asking the right question?
Methuselean Research exists to pursue questions worth asking—and, wherever possible, to turn those questions into testable hypotheses, those hypotheses into evidence, and that evidence into knowledge.