BIOTECHNOLOGY
Growing older may be a fact of life, but new ‘health span’ extending therapies promise to keep us fitter and healthier for longer. Cath O’Driscoll reports
40-50 S
Lifespan – in days – of Drosophila fruit flies, regularly used to study aspects related to human longevity. Fruit flies have a similar heart structure to humans, and share many similar heart genes and proteins – including a ‘tinman’ gene that appears to help prevent heart disease
o how would you like to grow old and die? Researcher Nathaniel (Ned) David plans on starting a musical
career when he turns 80, he told the BIO meeting in San Diego in June 2017: ‘Right now, I don’t have time.’ As for the preferred mode of
departure? ‘A colleague of mine once asked whether I’d rather die alone and infirm in bed with Alzheimer’s disease in my 80s, or be killed by a jealous lover at 107,’ he joked. Knowing David’s background, as the co-founder of San Francisco biopharma Unity Biotechnology, one suspects he’s more than half serious. And he’s not alone in thinking that way. Recent research advances are making scientists rethink the whole
process of ageing, according to speakers at the session on ‘Reimagining old age: new frontiers in the science of ageing’. Rather than looking forward to a future of ill health and frailty, researchers are finally closing in on the underlying causes and mechanisms responsible. Now is the ‘golden age’ of the science of ageing, said session organisers: ‘As sci-fi as it sounds, the reality is that medicines will soon exist that allow us to live productive and comfortable lives for much longer than we can conceive of as possible today.’
So what exactly will all of this mean for our future health and longevity? And what can we do as individuals to better protect ourselves from some of the damaging consequences of growing old?
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