The Faculty of Sciences

Longevity Studies

Longevity Studies

For most people, it is desirable to live very long, possibly forever, in excellent health. Unfortunately, the twin evils of disease and ageing (and consequently death) are currently inescapable. While many diseases can be treated or cured using the tools of modern medical science, ageing has proven immune to the concerted efforts of humanity to conquer it.

even such individuals cannot deny the enormous pain, suffering and loss occasioned by ageing and death.. - Dr. FRANK EDUGHOM EKPAR

We note that there are those who are of the opinion that ageing and death are integral parts of human life and should not be tampered with but even such individuals cannot deny the enormous pain, suffering and loss occasioned by ageing and death. The causes of ageing are not yet well understood and there are currently no proven remedies. Molecular biologists consider the shortening of telomeres – structures found at the ends of the chromosomes that contain our genes – to be indicative of ageing as explained by Maria A. Blasco [1] in a review of the relevant literature. (Maria B., 2007) [1].

Other researchers consider ageing to be an engineering problem that can be solved by dismantling the mechanisms that lead to the gradual degradation of, or damage to, the cells of the body or repairing such damage or degradation.

This engineering approach to ageing considers it a disease to be cured using the tools of medical science and specifically through Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence – SENS. This and related approaches are described by Aubrey de Grey (Aubrey De Grey, 2005) [2], Ben Zealley and Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey (Ben Zealley et al., 2012) [3], Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey and Michael Rae (Aubrey De Grey et al., 2007) [4] and Rittmann B. E. and Schloendorn J. (Rittmann et al., 2007) [5].

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna [6] for the development of a method for genome editing. Aspects of this work related to clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPRassociated (Cas) systems are described in (Martin Jinek et al., 2012) [7] and could potentially lead to effective methods to slow down, halt or reverse ageing.

Lecturers and students at Scholars University can evaluate the current approaches to ageing and help deliver new and effective approaches.

Computational Sciences Faculty of Sciences

Reference

  1. Maria A. Blasco, Telomere length, stem cells and aging, Nature Chemical Biology, volume 3, pages 640-649 (2007).

  2. Aubrey D. N. J. De Grey, A proposed refinement of the mitochondrial free radical theory of aging, BioEssays, Volume 19, Issue 2 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.950190211.

  3. Ben Zealley and Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, Gerontology (2012). DOI: 10.1159/000342197.

  4. Aubrey D.N.J. de Grey, Michael Rae, Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. (2007), ISBN 0-312-36706-6.

  5. Rittmann Bruce E., Schloendorn John, Engineering away lysosomal junk: medical bioremediation. Rejuvenation Res. 10(3): 359-365.(2007).

  6. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/press-release/ . Retrieved on January 28, 2021.

  7. Martin Jinek, Krzysztof Chylinski, Ines Fonfara, Michael Hauer, Jennifer A. Doudna, Emmanuel Charpentier, A Programmable DualRNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity, Science, volume 337, issue 6096, pages 816-821 (2012).