Longevity & Healthspan
By Barry Sardis
Introduction
When hearing the term Longevity, most people associate it with extending the length of human life (lifespan). But more and more it is becoming about also extending our Healthspan, which per Merriam-Webster means “the length of time in one’s life during which an individual is in reasonably good health”.
Several years ago I attended a presentation at The Tech Interactive by a noted, and controversial, biomedical gerontologist, Aubrey de Grey. He made the analogy that our bodies are like a car with lots of parts prone to wearing out. A 100 year old Model T can still be on the road because of repairing or replacing parts as needed. I discovered that I had somehow gotten a copy of his slides and you can view them below.
That experience got me interested in Longevity. Many scientists today are researching the hallmarks of aging to understand them better and develop repair or replace solutions.
Technology Explorers
In 2019 I was referred to Aging Analytics Agency. I was very impressed and subscribed. Soon after Margaretta Colangelo invited me to LinkedIn – I was very honored. Later on the Villages Technology Explorers (VTE) board decided that Longevity was a good topic for a meeting and I was tasked to query Margaretta.
She originally agreed to talk at our January 2020 meeting but subsequently had to defer it to March. So the VTE Board presented a series of YouTube videos covering a number of Longevity topics. Click in the box below to view that presentation.
Margaretta Colangelo Lectures
VTE became the Senior Academy Technology Explorers at the beginning of 2021 and, as noted above, Margaretta presented her first Senior Academy Longevity lecture, of the now annual series, in June 2021. The slides from that presentation are below.
Maragaretta’s personal website contains a wealth of information in articles and videos, on COVID-19, and more. She is probably the leading chronicler of the Longevity Industry, has tens of thousands that follow her LinkedIn article plus even more scientists, pharma executives, and investors that subscribe to her articles and industry reports. You can learn more about her by the effusive testimonials on her website.
Margaretta was instrumental in putting Longevity2020 (click here to see more on this conference below) together in April 2020.
September 28, 2022 Presentation Recording
The second annual Longevity lecture was recorded and you can view it via the YouTube video just below.
LinkedIn Article
After her presentation Margaretta crafted and published an article for her large number of LinkedIn followers with the slides of most interest to our residents along with links to related articles. She includes very kind words about Senior Academy too.
Clicking in the box will open the article in another tab, BUT, if you do not have an account or are not logged in, the slides will take a long time to load. Take a long break and come back later and the slides will be there.
June 10, 2021 Presentation Slides
Click in the box below to open a new tab with the PDF presentation.
Other Longevity Technology references
Deep Knowledge Group
Referenced above, the link below leads to a vast array of interrelated organizations. This one is a subsidiary of Deep Knowledge Group which supports Longevity.International.
Deep Knowledge Group.
Longevity2020
In April 2020, a month after the planned VTE talk by Margaretta Colangelo, she hosted a presentation session with three researchers focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence technologies at Longevity2020. A quote from that webpage:
Just four short weeks ago, this conference didn’t exist. COVID-19 had stunned the world with the speed of its spread, and none of us really knew what the world would look like today. But life goes on, and the issues being addressed by the Longevity sector are now more relevant in the context of the pandemic. So, with half the planet largely confined to their homes, we decided to take things online.
The conference took place over 5 days, attended by on average 1,500 people from around the world each day, with about 30 speakers. Below are recaps of each of the five days.
Click the box below to visit the current site of the company that put Longevity2020 together.
Aubrey de Grey
MIT Technology Review
In February 2005 this prestigious publication had Aubrey de Grey on the cover – click to access the issue:
The September/October 2019 Special Issue is devoted to the subject of Aging:
