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Gene identified that may explain why some people live beyond 100

Japanese researchers have identified specific features of a gene that could hold the key to living beyond 100 and lead to the development of medicine for extra longevity.

Scientists at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Keio University and other institutes said that centenarians and those close to that age share specific features of a gene that helps stem the spread of cancer and form bones.

“The gene we identified recently is not the sole actor determining longevity,” said Masashi Tanaka, chief of the Department of Clinical Laboratory at the institute. “But we believe that it plays a role in anti-aging in one way or another.”

Panel Discussion “How to Promote Longevity?”

Only one more day to go before the live longevity panel with Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Alexandra Stolzing and Dr. Oliver Medvedik plus guests!


June 6th at 13:00 EST/18:00 UK we are teaming up with LEAF/Lifespan.io for a special Longevity Panel featuring Dr. Alexandra Stolzing, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Oliver Medvedik and guests.

We will be streaming the panel live to this page and we invite you to join us. It will also be made available later to view on Youtube.

Dr. Rodolfo Goya – Could Yamanaka Factors Delay Human Aging?

LEAF attended the first Longevity and Cryopreservation Summit in Madrid recently. Here is another report from Elena Milova from the conference.


Elena Milova brings us another interesting interview from the recent International Longevity and Cryopreservation Summit where she caught up with Senior Scientist at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) of Argentina Dr. Rodolfo Gustavo Goya.

Dr. Goya admits he used to be a rebel from a young age. At 17 he decided he was not happy about aging and that he wanted to make a difference. He became a biochemist in the hope he could do something about age-related health deterioration and he continues to rebel against mother nature to this day. Dr. Goya has lead a number of studies on cellular reprogramming and restoration of function in important organs like the thymus and brain. He is also daring to challenge death itself by studying different aspects of cryopreservation and openly supports cryonics as a logical extension of medicine.

Dr. Goya explains his interest and motivation in aging research, as well as his views on the potential of Yamanaka factors and their limitations in relation to human rejuvenation, in this short interview.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey Interview : Controlling the Main Aging Damages — Where Are We Now?

Please enjoy this interview with Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of SENS Research Foundation — one of the most successful advocacy and fundraising initiatives supporting breakthrough research on the main mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases. http://www.sens.org

In this video Dr. de Grey speaks about the progress in developing interventions to tackle age-related damages identified by SENS as the main ones.

Interviewer — LEAF/Lifespan.io Board member Elena Milova.

Dr. de Grey received his BA in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Cambridge in 1985 and 2000, respectively. He is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research (http://www.liebertpub.com/overview/rejuvenation-research/127/), is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organizations.

This interview is presented by LEAF. Please support our work by becoming a “Lifespan Hero”: http://lifespan.io/hero

Billionaire Entrepreneur says Longevity is the Next ‘money fountain’

UK billionaire investor believes rejuvenation biotechnology will be the next mega-industry.


Many of you may already know about billionaire entrepreneur Jim Mellon and his interest in rejuvenation biotechnology. But for those of you who do not, we would like to introduce you to him and his exciting work.

About Jim Mellon

Jim Mellon is an entrepreneur and investor with interests in several sectors. He also holds a Master’s degree from Oxford in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. From the mid 1980s he worked as a fund manager in Asia and later in the United States until founding his own company in 1991. Jim is the Co-Chairman of Regent Pacific Group Limited, Chairman of Manx Financial Group plc, Chairman of Plethora Solutions Holdings plc, and Chairman of Port Erin Biopharma Investments Limited. He is also a non-executive director of Charlemagne Capital Limited, Condor Gold plc; West African Minerals Corporation; Kuala Innovations Limited and 3Legs Resources plc; and is also a director of Portage Biotech Inc. Jim has been in the top 10% in the Sunday Times Rich List for several years.

Dr. Michael Lustgarten – Using an Evidence Based Approach for Optimal Health and Longevity

LEAF interviews Dr. Michael Lustgarten author of ‘Microbial Burden: A Major Cause Of Aging And Age-Related Disease’.


As part of our series covering the various researchers working on aging, we finally caught up with Dr. Michael Lustgarten author of ‘Microbial Burden: A Major Cause Of Aging And Age-Related Disease’ and we did this short interview which we hope may be of interest to you.

Hi Mike can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work?

My name is Michael Lustgarten, and I’m currently a scientist at the Tufts University Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, MA. I have funding to examine the role of the gut microbiome and serum metabolome on lean mass and physical function in older adults.

Death gives meaning to life

Death gives as much meaning to life as having your stomach ripped out gives meaning to having a stomach.


You’ve probably heard this sentence a bagillion times. It’s the kind of statement people assume to be deeply philosophical and meaningful by default. In my humble opinion, though, it’s a pile of sh—oh, well, you know what.

If death gives meaning to life, I suppose diseases give meaning to being healthy, and thus we should leave some diseases around so that people can appreciate not being sick, right? How often do you say yourself, ‘Hmm… I haven’t been sick in a while… I should get one of those nasty cancers, before I stop appreciating how it feels being healthy. Where’s my emergency plutonium bar?’ Personally, I don’t say that to myself very often. I mean, I can totally appreciate the feeling of not being kicked in the nuts even without ever being kicked in the nuts, really. And I can appreciate not having a certain disease even if I’m not aware the disease exists. I can totally enjoy life without dying, and I could still enjoy it even if it were impossible for me to die.

People reason by analogies. They know there are some concepts that would be more difficult to grasp without their opposite, and think the analogy can be extended to ANYTHING AT ALL. For example, if you’ve never been sad, you can’t be sure just how different it is from being happy. I’m not sure how you can get from this to ‘you need to be mortal to enjoy life’, especially when there are no real-life examples of immortal people incapable to enjoy life because of their immortality. Can you smell the pungent aroma of foxes disdaining grapes?

Journal Club May 30th 13:00 EST/18:00 UK

Our Journal Club goes live at 13:00 EST/18:00 UK. Come and watch the live stream on our page where we discuss the latest research. Todays topic is the recent reversal of Epigenetic changes in a living animal via partial cellular programming.


Journal Club live stream to our Facebook page May 30th 13:00 EST/18:00 UK. Join us here live to listen to LEAF and Ocean level Patrons discuss epigenetics and how it relates to aging. It will also be available later to view on Youtube.

This the first of our Monthly Journal Club events hosted by Dr. Oliver Medvedik and guests where we discuss the latest research papers. Journal Club is part of a host of new activities and content this year and is a result of the support we have recieved from the Heroes Campaign currently running on Lifespan.io. If you would like to see more content like this consider becoming a Patron today on the link below:

https://www.lifespan.io/campaigns/join-us-become-a-lifespan-hero/

The Need for Better Aging Biomarkers

There is an urgent need to develop better biomarkers and to use the in cost effective packages for accurate measurement of aging.


As human life expectancy has increased throughout the 20th and 21st centuries this has led to a steady increase in the population of older people. With that increase has come the rise of age-related diseases and disabilities. As a result it is becoming ever more important to develop preventative strategies to monitor and maintain health as well as therapies that directly address the various aging processes to delay or prevent the onset of age-related diseases.

One of the ways we can do this is by developing more effective ways to measure how someone is aging, this means developing high quality aging biomarkers. The challenge in creating such biomarkers has always been the fundamental question – what do we measure?

Chronological age is a poor indication of how someone might be aging and is not a good way to ascertain an individual’s risk factor for various age-related diseases. This is simply because everyone ages differently and at different rates. Whilst everyone ages due to the same processes the speed at which these different processes occur can vary between individuals.

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