Mprize, a special fund that seeks to encourage research into extending healthy human life ($3.8 million)

I find this to be very encouraging!

…$3.8 million will work instead. That’s the current size of the Mprize, a special fund put forth by the Methuselah Foundation that seeks to encourage research into extending healthy human life. The prize is awarded to those scientists who can increase the lifespan of lab mice in the hopes that work performed on that species can be readily applied to humans…

http://singularityhub.com/2009/10/06/mprize-your-children-could-be-immortal/

There is nothing like cold, hard cash to motivate scientists into looking into issues and raising the overall consciousness of the topic at hand.  Thanks to the Methuselah Foundation this could start some new scientists to look at life extension and add further study and research.