X-Message-Number: 28551
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 20:21:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: 
Subject: Supercentenarian Research Foundation in the news

[ A preliminary finding from 7 autopsies of supercentenarians is that
four of these are believed to have died of senile systemic
amyloidosis. This disease does not affect the brain, and should not be
confused with Alzheimer's disease. Please note that aging is clearly
multifactorial, with immunosenescence being another prime target for
intervention.
 Supercentenarians have an average life expectancy of just one year,
while for centenarians it is two years. Thus one factor responsible for
the extended survival of these individuals appears to be luck. On the plus
side of the ledger, it may take less time to validate successful life
extension therapies in these human populations, than it would in young
mice, which typically live for 3-4 years.]

Ex-Greenhouse chief to study supercentenarians
Pittsburgh Business Times - 8:49 AM EDT Thursday
by Jennifer Curry

After leaving the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse at the end of
November, former CEO Doros Platika will embark on a new role: helping to
get funding to study the world's oldest people.

Platika will be chairman of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation , a
new organization designed to pump funding into studies that look at why
supercentenarians, or people who have lived more than 110 years, have
survived as long as they have.

"Globally, we are going to have to deal with aging," Platika said. "I am
a believer that the fountain of youth is in our genes. Our interaction
with the environment will determine how long we live."

The foundation's goals are two-fold: to help improve quality of life for
aging individuals and to try to emulate their successful longevity. The
foundation will provide funding for research designed to identify the
most important factors in helping supercentenarians avoid getting common
diseases that kill most people at a younger age.

"Those who are approaching the maximum lifespan can provide us with some
important information about aging," said Stanley Primmer, president of
the new foundation. "Why are they able to live longer than everybody
else? Why don't they live longer than they do? The funds for research
will help answer these questions."

No one knows for certain how many supercentenarians there are
globally. According to Primmer, estimates range from 300 to 400, but only
77 have been identified currently. (The number also changes constantly
because someone who is 110 has just a 50 percent chance of surviving
until 111.)

Platika and Primmer will be two of four founding board members for the
foundation, which will be based in Pittsburgh. The others are Stephen
Coles from the University of California Los Angeles and David Gobel,
president of the Methuselah Foundation in Virginia.

To get it up and running, the foundation's leaders have raised $200,000
from private sources. Platika hopes next to raise a few million dollars
to create a directory of people older than 110. He then hopes to raise
more than $100 million for longevity studies at major academic medical
centers.

Primmer added that Platika's experience as president and CEO of
Cambridge, Mass.-based Centagenetix , which studied the genetics of
centenarians, will be an asset.

"Doros has wide experience," he said. "He's an M.D. He's been involved in
for-profit corporations. He's done basic research himself. He's done
non-profit foundations. He's worn all the hats."

The foundation is not the first aging initiative in the Pittsburgh
region, which is second only to the Miami region in the percentage of
residents 65 and older.

In July, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh were
awarded $15 million from the National Science Foundation to establish an
engineering research center that will develop technologies to help aging
adults have a higher quality of life. And the National Institute on Aging
also is conducting a study that examines long-lived families and their
secrets to a healthy life, which has one study center based at Pitt.

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