William G. Kaelin, Jr., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, of Oxford University and the Francis Crick Institute, and Gregg L. Semenza, of Johns Hopkins University were jointly awarded the prize.
The complex interplay of various processes and mechanisms that contribute to aging means it’s unlikely we’ll discover a single “magic bullet” to prevent age-related diseases. But new research led by University College London and the Max Planck Institute for Biology and Ageing is potentially as close as anything we’ve seen. The scientists have been able to extend the lifespan of fruit flies by 48 percent using a triple drug combination made up of drugs already used in people.
“As life expectancies increase, we are also seeing an increase of age-related diseases so there is an urgent need to find ways to improve health in old age,” says study co-lead author, Dr Jorge Castillo-Quan. “Here, by studying fruit flies which age much more rapidly than people, we have found that a combination drug treatment targeting different cellular processes may be an effective way to slow down the aging process.”
The three drugs making up the combo include lithium, which is used as a mood stabilizer, trametinib, a cancer drug that inhibits MEK1 and MEK2 enzymes, and rapamycin, an immune system regulator produced by bacteria that was first found in a soil sample from Easter Island and has been found to improve learning and memory in mice.
Ira Pastor, ideaXme longevity and aging ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Ambassador Juan José Gómez Camacho, Mexico’s current Ambassador to Canada, and for the last 3 years, Mexico’s Permanent Representative of the United Nations in New York City.
Ira Pastor Comments:
Today, we are going to talk about a fascinating series of topics related to global population health, and we will start by citing some staggering data.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are around 1 billion migrants in the world today. 258 million of them are international migrants and 763 million are internal migrants, that’s one in seven of the world’s population.
68 million of the world’s internal and international migrants are forcibly displaced. This rapid increase of population movement has important public health implications, and therefore requires an adequate response from the health sector as many refugees and migrants often lack access to health services and financial protection for health.
Additionally, although we are only 20 years into the 21st century, it is a century that has already been marked by many major epidemics. Old diseases, such as cholera, plague and yellow fever, have all made a return, and many new ones have emerged including SARS, pandemic influenza, MERS, Ebola and Zika.
Bank employs AI-powered “digital DNA human”
Arab Banking Corporation (Bank ABC), in collaboration with New Zealand tech company, Soul Machines, has announced the launch of “Fatema” – a fully autonomous AI personality that will assist customers online.
This “digital employee” can accumulate experiences, learn, and respond to people individually, therefore adding human-like qualities to the AI. Fatema will work alongside Bank ABC’s mobile-only digital bank (to be launched by end of this year) to offer a multi-faceted, personalised customer experience.