Editing Immortality (section)

====Aging====
{{see also|DNA damage theory of aging}}

[[Aubrey de Grey]], a leading researcher in the field,<ref name="Garreau">{{cite news |first=Joel |last=Garreau |author-link=Joel Garreau |date=31 October 2007 |title=The Invincible Man |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |page=C‑01 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103002222_pf.html}}</ref> defines [[aging]] as "a collection of cumulative changes to the [[molecular]] and [[cell (biology)|cellular]] structure of an adult [[organism]], which result in essential [[metabolic]] processes, but which also, once they progress far enough, increasingly disrupt metabolism, resulting in [[pathology]] and death." The current causes of aging in humans are cell loss (without replacement), [[DNA damage theory of aging|DNA damage]], [[oncology|oncogenic]] [[cell nucleus|nuclear]] [[mutation]]s and [[epimutation]]s, cell [[senescence]], [[mitochondria]]l mutations, [[lysosomal]] aggregates, extracellular aggregates, random extracellular cross-linking, [[immune system]] decline, and [[endocrine]] changes. Eliminating aging would require finding a solution to each of these causes, a program de Grey calls [[Strategies for engineered negligible senescence|engineered negligible senescence]]. There is also a huge body of knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of molecular fidelity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=C. |last2=Bernstein |first2=H. |year=1991 |title=Aging, Sex, and DNA Repair |publisher=Academic Press |place=San Diego, CA |isbn=978-0120928606}} {{ISBN|0120928604}}</ref>