“The biggest health problem in the world is age-related diseases.”
Not a revolutionary statement that of Dr. Brad Perking, the medical director of Human Longevity. Yet of his recent intervention in Abu Dhabi, these were the last words stuck in the present. In his projections of the near future, the doctor's analysis was much more visionary, as is typical of him.
Human Longevity Inc. is the company founded by Craig Venter with an initial investment of over 200 million euros. The company develops high-tech research in the fields of genomics and pharmacology, and believes that this will be the field that will produce the greatest acceleration in changes in human life expectancy.
“Within 40 years,” he specified, “the maximum age that can be reached will be 140 years, almost double the current one (80 years on average)”.
The oldest person ever recorded is currently 122 years old.
Aubrey de Gray, a Californian gerontologist and head of the SENS research foundation which focuses its efforts on slowing down (if not reversing) the aging process, adds: "The first person in the world capable of living 1000 years has probably already been born" .
“Curing” aging is difficult, but not impossible: the only way to do it is to stay as healthy as possible, gradually repairing the progressive “defects” of aging before they degenerate into more serious complications.
Craig Venter's contribution has allowed Human Longevity to obtain the largest and most complete collection of data on genome, phenotype and clinical studies. Clinical research programs focus on the use of artificial intelligence and the most advanced computational capabilities to produce the most detailed "picture" of the human being.
Secondo Peter Diamandis, co-founder, Human Longevity's technologies will allow humans to live at least as long as the longest-lived of vertebrate animals: the Somniosus microcephalus (better known as the "Greenland shark"), capable of living for a "minimum" of 272 years to a maximum of 512 years.
Ultimately, according to scientists and researchers involved in longevity studies, the process of reversing aging will be a reality within 10 years: there are currently 65 gene therapies being tested in rats and larger animals. The first clinical trial on humans? It will start this year.
Long live research, and we hope to be there when the first results appear.
