“Aging is controlled by genes and the environment, and poses the largest single risk for developing a panoply of diseases, including cancer. Why do organisms age, and why do diseases such as cancer rise exponentially with age? My laboratory aims to understand the molecular and cellular basis of aging in mammals.”
- Judy Campisi, Ph.D.
I recently attended the BioScience Forum, at which Judy presented “Curing Aging: A Mad Pursuit?” [See her Nature article posted in the comments.] While others may have said the same things in a depressed tone, Judy spoke with passion about the problems confronting aging research. She clearly has no intention of giving up. Judy is quite a remarkable lady.
The broad points of her talk:
- Can we extend life? Yes, of course – we already have! We’ve doubled our “pre-cell phone” lifespans, primarily by controlling our environments.
- We have increased our lifespans more quickly than our genomes can adapt to compensate. We may be able to extend lifespan further (specific approaches in the paper), but we would continue to age.
- To combat aging due to the accumulation of damage, we can remove the accumulation, allowing us to continue functioning healthfully into advanced age.
Judy and collaborator, Jan Vijg, were recently mentioned in the New York Times article, “Tests Begin on Drugs That May Slow Aging.” [Full text in comments.]
The article raises whether supplementation with certain chemicals can extend life. Perhaps, is the answer, though it does lean positively toward the notion that lifespan can be extended through currently available commercial chemical intervention. Interestingly, Judy’s research is used to support the less hopeful side of the argument. This seems a case of a carefully worded academic paper causing diminished expectations of future therapies. (A bigger issue that greatly bothers me.)
The article ends with a mention that life span is not fixed. I couldn’t understand what that meant… But, semantics aside, the important point is that the author implies that aging is a problem.
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Aging is a puzzle to be solved by people. Single individuals can have a great impact in this field. Simply by considering the belief that death is not inevitable, a paradigm shift occurs. We don’t have to die. OK. Now the choice: do you want to live or do you want to die? Let’s assume – dear, animate reader – that you and me and we want to live. What can we do? I encourage you to think about this.
