WALTHAM, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/24/10 -- InnoCentive, Inc., the world leader in open innovation, today announced it has issued a Challenge with the SENS Foundation (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) seeking innovative ideas to biologically reverse one of the causes of aging and age-related diseases believed to be attributed to glucosepane, a protein crosslink that reduces elasticity throughout the body. This is a Theoretical Challenge, so Solvers need to submit a detailed and thorough description of their solution. The Challenge runs for 60 days and one Solver will receive $20,000 if their solution is chosen.

"Finding an innovative solution to breaking down glucosepane, or what we call 'public enemy number one,' is our Foundation's top priority in the category of protein crosslinks, as it is the most abundant protein crosslink in aged humans," said Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer, SENS Foundation. "We believe there are several radical possibilities to solving this Challenge -- things we haven't even thought of -- and will keep an open mind to solutions we receive. Our goal is to discover solutions that can be implemented and reverse stiffening, therefore restoring youthful health and vigor to the world's population."

Since its inception, the SENS Foundation has researched ways to repair molecular and cellular damage taking place within the body throughout a person's life. Typically the damage is harmless and only becomes problematic later in life when it drives diseases. A primary culprit is the accumulation of glucosepane, a protein crosslink that causes stiffening of various body parts including major arteries. Evidence suggests that glucosepane may play a role in osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, inflammation and diabetes. Scientists have studied the accumulation of glucosepane for 30 years with little success, so SENS Foundation is reaching out to InnoCentive's 200,000+ Solvers for innovative solutions to find a way to break the formation of glucosepane.

"There are astounding implications to the possibility of reversing aging and living a longer, healthy life," said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive. "SENS has identified seven categories that cause us to age. While this Challenge addresses only one type of crosslink in one category, if our Solver community can solve this Challenge, it could help SENS figure out how to attack the other types of crosslinks."

About SENS Foundation
SENS Foundation is a non-profit organization* which works to develop, promote and ensure widespread access to rejuvenation biotechnologies. Our efforts combine direct research efforts with education, affiliation and outreach programs. We support key research through our own Research Center and through centers of excellence at a variety of affiliated universities and research organizations. Our vision is a world in which all people have the opportunity to live their lives free from the diseases and disabilities of aging. For more information visit www.sens.org.

About InnoCentive, Inc.
Since 2001, InnoCentive has helped corporate, government, and non-profit organizations to better innovate through crowdsourcing, strategic consulting services and internal Software-as-a-Service offerings. The company built the first global Web community for open innovation where organizations or "Seekers" submit complex problems or "Challenges" for resolution to a "Solver" community of more than 200,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, business professionals, and research organizations in more than 200 countries. Prizes for winning solutions are financial awards up to US $1,000,000. Committed to unleashing diverse thinking, InnoCentive continues to introduce new products and services exemplifying a new corporate model where return to investors and individual passion go hand in hand with solving mankind's most pressing problems. http://www.innocentive.com/

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