“The biggest health problem in the world is represented by 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 still in the present. In the projections of the near future the doctor's analysis was much more visionary, as it is in his strings.
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 field of genomics and pharmacology, and aims on the fact that this will be the field that will produce the greatest acceleration in the 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 on record is currently 122 years old.
Aubrey de Gray, Californian gerontologist and head of the SENS Research Foundation, which focuses its efforts on slowing down (if not reversing) the aging process, adds to the dose: "The first person in the world capable of living 1000 years is probably already 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 “failures” of aging before they degenerate into more serious complications.
Craig Venter's input has enabled Human Longevity to obtain the largest and most comprehensive collection of genome, phenotype and clinical trial data. 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.
Second Peter Diamandis, co-founder, Human Longevity technologies will allow humans to live at least as long as the longest-lived of vertebrate animals: it is Somniosus microcephalus (better known as "Greenland shark"), capable of living from a "minimum" of 272 years to a maximum of 512 years.
Ultimately, according to scientists and researchers involved in longevity studies, the aging reversal process will be a reality within 10 years - there are currently 65 gene therapies being tested in rats and larger animals. The first clinical trial in humans? It will start just this year.
Long live research, and we hope to be there when the first results appear.
