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Top ten causes of death

Of the 56.4 million deaths worldwide in 2015, more than half (54%) were due to the top 10 causes. Ischaemic heart disease and stroke are the world’s biggest killers, accounting for a combined 15 million deaths in 2015. These diseases have remained the leading causes of death globally in the last 15 years.


In 2012, an estimated 56 million people died worldwide. Discover what have remained the top major killers during the past decade.

Undoing Aging Rejuvenation Biotechnology Conference Announced

We are delighted to hear that the SENS Research Foundation and the Forever Healthy Foundation have joined forces to host an exciting conference about rejuvenation biotechnology on March 15–17, 2018 at the Umspannwerk Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany.

The particularly good news is that this conference will be open to the wider community interested in this field and not just academia. We believe this is a fantastic move, as it allows more people to engage with the science and to learn firsthand from the researchers working on the front line. We very much support the idea that we are all in this together and thus are very pleased to see that the event is open to the entire community.

The event will be a fantastic opportunity to network as well as learn about the latest exciting innovations and progress in the field. The strength of our community relies on our ability to network effectively and engage with the wider public audience as well as attract the support of investors and philanthropists.

MouseAge: What are Biomarkers of Aging?

Today we have another video update from the Mouseage team who are working to create the first artificial intelligence-based photographic biomarker of aging in mice. The project aims to provide researchers with a cheap and effective biomarker system that can be used to quickly determine if interventions against the age-related diseases are effective as well as helping to save the lives of lab animals worldwide.

In this episode, Poly Mamoshina is at Oxford University is talking about aging biomarkers and why they are so important for research. Poly is a research scientist at Insilico Medicine in the Pharma AI division which specializes in artificial intelligence-based drug discovery. She is also a part of Computational biology team in Computer Science Department at the University of Oxford, you can learn more about her work here.

What are biomarkers and why are they so important in aging research? Poly explains in this informative video.

We need to change how we bury the dead

The way we traditionally bury the dead is horrible for the environment.

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The modern way of burying a body, the “casket in the ground method” most of us are used to is horrible for the environment. It uses an incredible amount of resources, emits toxic pollutants into the air, and pumps the ground full of formaldehyde, which is known to cause cancer. It’s also prohibitively expensive. The average cost of a modern funeral costs between $10,000 to $12,000.

There are a number of greener options available though. Cremation uses less resources and requires less space than a traditional burial, but isn’t perfect. There are more experimental methods on the horizon such as promession and alkaline hydrolysis.

New class of drugs targets aging to help keep you healthy

The researchers, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, are calling for senolytic drugs to make the leap from animal research to human clinical trials. They outlined potential clinical trial scenarios in a paper published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Monday.

“This is one of the most exciting fields in all of medicine or science at the moment,” said Dr. James Kirkland, director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic and lead author of the new paper.

New Senolytic Drugs Reverse Aging — “Can Transform Medicine” Says Leading Researcher

Senolytic compounds hold promise to reverse aging in humans. Researcher James Kirkland publishes a list of senolytics in a review published yesterday. Two of the senolytics are currently in clinical trials. [Cover photo: Can Senolytic Drugs Reverse Aging? Credit: Getty Images.]

Imagine if you were able to reverse aging and bring your body back to its original health and vigor.

Researchers have already discovered a group of drugs called senolytics which perform this miraculous transformation in mice and are testing them in humans as we speak.

UCLA Team Genetically Manipulates Mitochondria to Extend Fruit Flies’ Lifespan

UCLA scientists working with middle-aged fruit flies say they were able to improve the insects’ health while markedly slowing down their aging process. The team thinks its technique could eventually help delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and other age-related diseases in humans.

The researchers zeroed in on mitochondria, which often become damaged with age. When cells can’t eliminate the damaged mitochondria, they can become toxic and contribute to a wide range of age-related diseases, said David Walker, Ph.D., a UCLA professor of integrative biology and physiology, and the study’s senior author.

Dr. Walker and his colleagues found that as fruit flies reach middle age—about one month into their two-month lifespan—their mitochondria change from their original small, round shape.

Your Saliva Contains a Molecule That Heals Wounds

Why is it that a cut on your finger seems to last for days, but a cut in your mouth is usually healed by morning? There are a lot of factors at play, but 2017 research found one intriguing answer that could benefit more than just your mouth: there’s a molecule in your saliva that can help grow new cells.

Scientists already knew that saliva contains a peptide called histatin-1 that fights off bacteria and aids in wound healing. For a 2017 study published in the FASEB Journal, Chilean researchers set out to discover exactly how the little molecule helped heal wounds. In a series of experiments, they added histatin-1 to chicken embryo cells and several types of human blood-vessel cells, and watched what happened.

There are many steps that have to happen for a wound to heal. New skin cells have to form and migrate from the wound’s edges little by little to cover the whole thing like a Band-Aid. Active cells called fibroblasts move in, too, helping to produce collagen, elastin, and other proteins that the new skin will need. The body also starts regrowing blood vessels, which boosts blood flow to the wound and makes it heal even faster.