Hedge fund offers $1M to cure aging

The $1 million "Palo Alto Longevity Prize" will be split in two, but teams can try for both. One $500,000 award will go to the first team to show, using a mammal for testing, that it can restore a youthful heart rate to an aging adult. The second $500,000 pot will be awarded to the first group that can extend lifespan by 50 percent.

Eleven teams have already signed up to compete and more can apply. They include researchers from Stanford, George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis who will experiment with gene modification and the hormone oxytocin.

"Now is the time to launch this prize because we have reached the point in science where we really do have the opportunity to solve aging," Dr. Doris Taylor, director of the regenerative medicine research at Texas Heart Institute, said in a statement. Taylor is a leader of an initial team competing for the prize using a stem cell approach.

Prize organizers are also working with private investors and foundations to provide access to additional money to the teams. The effort's advisory board includes Eric Weinstein of Thiel Capital, Graham Spencer of Google Ventures and Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

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Hedge fund offers $1M to cure aging