Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a bet for longevity

In February this year, a group of 16 researchers from Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University, the Salk Institute, the Buck Institute, Albert Einstein College and other institutions in the United States and Europe launched the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research, a non-profit organization of profit to promote future work, facilitate collaborations among scientists and ensure that governments and enterprises make decisions based on the latest facts instead of rumors, speculations or exaggerations.

Treating the causes of age-related diseases, not the symptoms

Current medical approaches seek to deal with diseases as they appear. Disease comes out and medicine kills it only so that another one appears in another place, and the cycle repeats itself with, in some cases, less and less possibilities of success and increasing costs.

Scientists, however, begin to move toward the idea that to effectively treat age-related diseases, one must point to the causes, not the symptoms. This means that if we want to end age-related diseases, we must treat the causes of aging directly so that these diseases never develop in the first place. This field of science is called geroscience.

Medicine and how we look and treat aging will change

The mission of the organization is to establish the public scenario for the transformation that society must do, since the increase of the health period means that a growing population can live a healthier life for longer. The group's plan is to achieve its objectives through awareness and education, by providing new research a platform for its dissemination and by organizing conferences and forums where world leaders in the study of longevity meet and share research and knowledge points. view. In addition, the Academy will provide grants to fund promising research from established and emerging scientists.

"We believe that we are at a critical moment in the investigation of the decline related to age, which is the moment that inspired the creation of the Academy," said David Setboun, president of the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research, in an interview: "Our shared belief is that science shows that we can grow older later. "

"Our 16 founders are among the world's leading scientists, and in addition to increasing knowledge about the progress of research among the general public, we will encourage greater public and private investment in research on the duration of health and longevity in all the world".

The first event of the Academy will be held on July 30 and 31 in Paris, where the results of new studies, recently published articles and common areas of research will be shared. While they come from diverse disciplines and participate in disparate approaches, the shared work will address the reduction and reversal of the wide range of age-related health declines that currently limit the productivity and happiness of increasingly larger proportions of people. The world population.

The Academy embraces a 4C mission: First to Catalyze the world's ongoing research to accelerate the development of life-changing enhancements of healthy aging. Second to Connect our founders to each other through the auspices of the academy. The third C: Convene experts and authorities around the world to advance their missions and that of the Academy's in public and private settings. Finally, we shall Communicate with the public at large to educate them about this new generation of health span and longevity research, what it means and what it doesn't mean

Spanish representation

Among the founders of the Academy for Health & Lifespan Research are great names of Spanish science such as Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, professor of research, holds the Roger Guillemin chair at the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and participant in the cycle of dialogues "Conversations in Salamanca: understanding the aging process" of the International Center on Aging (CENIE).

Also, Ana Maria Cuervo, who holds the Robert and Renee Belfer chair for the study of neurodegenerative diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she is a tenured professor of Molecular Biology of Development and Medicine and co-director of the Center of Studies on Aging.

In addition, and closing the group of Spanish researchers, we have Dr. Manuel Serrano Marugán, director of the Cellular Plasticity and Disease group at the Biomedical Research Institute of Barcelona.