Category Archives: Human Longevity

In the largest whole genome sequencing and analysis of blood metabolites, researchers found that rare variants associated with abnormal blood metabolite profiles are higher in the adult population than previously thought and could be key factors in health.

The study, led by genomic-based health intelligence company Human Longevity Inc., discovered 101 new sites in the genome associated to 246 metabolites and identified 90 rare variants connected to abnormal blood levels of certain metabolites.

Researchers, led by first author Tao Long, Ph.D., from Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, and HLI Chief Scientific Officer Amalio Telenti, M.D., Ph.D., performed whole genome analysis and metabolite profiling on 1,960 adults, including twin pairs, who were observed at three clinical visits over 18 years. The analysis focused on 644 particular blood metabolites.

Blood metabolites were measured using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry technology.

The analysis revealed that 10 percent of the 1,054 non-related participants carried heterozygous rare variants that affect function of 17 genes. Thirteen of these genes are linked to inborn metabolic errors and other genetic disorders.

The collection of small molecules and chemicals in blood called the metabolome reflect the intimate workings of our body, Telenti said in a prepared statement. It was very surprising to us that so many adults would display abnormalities in blood metabolites, and that a high proportion would be the result of genetic defects. We believe the metabolome should be a continued area of research, and our findings today highlight the importance of looking holistically at the body and all the components that factor into our health and potential for disease.

Along with HLI, metabolomics company Metabolon and researchers from the Twins UK study collaborated on this work.

The findings were published March 6 in Nature Genetics.

Link:
Whole Genome Sequencing Analysis Identifies 90 Rare Variants in the Human Blood Metabolome - Bioscience Technology

Scientists gathered in Abu Dhabi for a forum on human longevity said humans may live up to 140 years within the next two generations with one expert arguing that the first person to live 1,000 years is probably already born.

Speaking at the Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum, Dr Brad Perkins, chief medical officer, Human Longevity, said: Right now the most daunting and expensive human health problem that the world is facing is age related chronic disease. Our hypothesis at Human Longevity is that genomics and the technologies that support its application in medicine and drug discovery are going to be the next accelerant in extending a high performance human lifespan.

The two-day part private conference, part public festival aims to tackle some of the worlds largest moonshot challenges.

Dr Maha Barakat, director general, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, argued that the world is in a transition phase, and on the cusp of major improvements in medicine that will help people live longer.

Once we have gone through this phase and through this research we are hearing about, we will be heading towards a phase where we can live longer without disease. And that I would say is the Holy Grail. This is the utopian society that we are heading towards, where we can live much longer.

Speakers shared some of the current developments in medicine which will help to achieve this goal, such as regenerative medicine, which is already a reality.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, spoke about strategies that exist to promote regeneration include using cells alone, using cells and scaffolds together for structural defects, alongside bio-printing to create human organoid microchips which can be used to test the effectiveness of drugs.

He said challenges exist surrounding cost, scale and regulation, but the goal is to keep bringing these technologies to more patients.

Dr Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, US, and chief science officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process, argued that the first person to live to 1,000 years is already probably alive today.

He further commented that fixing ageing is difficult, but not impossible and the only way in which people are going to stay alive a long time is by staying healthy a long time.

He further concluded: We won World War II and World War I. World War III hasnt happened yet. But World War 0 which we have been fighting against nature since the dawn of civilization is still there to be won.

The Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum is a collaboration between Tamkeen, a Government of Abu Dhabi-owned company, and the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies organisation based in the US.

The event was held in partnership with McKinsey & Company, the UAE Space Agency, Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, US-UAE Business Council, NYUAD, The National, Al Ittihad, DubaiEye and Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas. -TradeArabia News Service

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Humans may live up to 140 years in two generations - Trade Arabia - Trade Arabia

Longevity claims are unsubstantiated cases of asserted human longevity. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are referred to as supercentenarians. Many have either no official verification or are backed only by partial evidence. Cases where longevity has been fully verified, according to modern standards of longevity research, are reflected in an established list of supercentenarians based on the work of organizations such as the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) or the Guinness World Records. This list includes claims between 115 years and 130 years.

Prior to the 19th century, there was insufficient evidence either to demonstrate or to refute centenarian longevity.[1] Even today, no fixed theoretical limit to human longevity is apparent.[2] Studies[1] in the biodemography of human longevity indicate a late-life mortality deceleration law: that death rates level off at advanced ages to a late-life mortality plateau. This implies that there is no fixed upper limit to human longevity, or fixed maximum human lifespan.[3] Researchers in Denmark have found a way to determine when a person was born using radiocarbon dating done on the lens of the eye.[4]

In 1955, Guinness World Records began maintaining a list of the verified oldest people.[5] It developed into a list of all supercentenarians whose lifespan had been verified by at least three documents, in a standardized process, according to the norms of modern longevity research. Many unverified cases ("claims" or "traditions") have been controverted by reliable sources. Taking reliable demographic data into account, these unverified cases vary widely in their plausibility.

Despite demographic evidence of the known extremes of modern longevity, stories in otherwise reliable sources still surface regularly, stating that these extremes have been exceeded. Responsible, modern, scientific validation of human longevity requires investigation of records following an individual from birth to the present (or to death); purported longevity far outside the demonstrated records regularly fail such scrutiny.

Actuary Walter G. Bowerman stated that ill-founded longevity assertions originate mainly in remote, underdeveloped regions, among non-literate peoples, with only family testimony available as evidence.[7] This means that people living in areas of the world with historically more comprehensive resources for record-keeping have tended to hold more claims to longevity, regardless of whether or not individuals in other parts of the world have lived longer.

In the transitional period of record-keeping, records tend to exist for the wealthy and upper-middle classes, but are often spotty and nonexistent for the middle classes and the poor. In the United States, birth registration did not begin in Mississippi until 1912 and was not universal until 1933. Hence, in many longevity cases, no actual birth record exists. This type of case is classified by gerontologists as "partially validated".[citation needed]

Since some cases were recorded in a census or in other reliable sources, obtainable evidence may complete full verification.

In another type of case, the only records that exist are late-life documents. Because age inflation often occurs in adulthood (to avoid military service or to apply for a pension early), or because the government may have begun record-keeping during an individual's lifetime, cases unverified by proximate records exist. These unverified cases are less likely to be true (because the records are written later), but are still possible. Longevity narratives were not subjected to rigorous scrutiny until the work of William Thoms in 1873. Thoms proposed the 100th-birthday test: is there evidence to support an individual's claimed age at what would be their centenary birthday?[9][10] This test does not prove a person's age, but does winnow out typical pension-claim longevity exaggerations and spontaneous claims that a certain relative is over 150.

These are standardized lists of people whose lifespans remain unverified by proximate records, including both modern (Guinness-era) and historical cases. Claims missing either (or both) a date of birth/date of death are listed separately. All cases in which an individual's supercentenarian lifespan is not (yet) backed by records sufficient to the standards of modern longevity research are listed as unverified. They may be factually true, even though records do not exist (or have not yet been found), so such lists include these grey-area cases.

These living supercentenarian cases, in descending order of claimed age, with full birth and review dates, have been updated within the past two years, but have not had their claimed age validated by an independent body such as the Gerontology Research Group or Guinness World Records. Only claims over 115 years but under 130 years are included in the list.

This table contains supercentenarian claims with either a known death date or no confirmation for more than 2 years that they were still alive. Only claims of ages 115129 are included. They are listed in order of age as of the date of death or date last reported alive.

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Longevity claims - Wikipedia

Speaking at the Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum, Dr Brad Perkins, chief medical officer, Human Longevity, said: Right now the most daunting and expensive human health problem that the world is facing is age related chronic disease. Our hypothesis at Human Longevity is that genomics and the technologies that support its application in medicine and drug discovery are going to be the next accelerant in extending a high performance human lifespan

Human Longevity Inc has been funded with over $220 million and was founded by Craig Venter, Peter Diamandis and Robert Hariri.

Dr. Brad Perkins and other anti-aging researchers at commercial companies made the more conservative for anti-aging researchers that within about 40 years human longevity (maximum lifespan) will reach 140 years. Current life expectancy is about 80 years but with some countries and states at about 90 years for women. The confirmed longest lived person reached 122 years of age.

Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, US, and chief science officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process, argued that the first person to live to 1,000 years is already probably alive today.

He further commented that fixing ageing is difficult, but not impossible and the only way in which people are going to stay alive a long time is by staying healthy a long time. His focus is on constantly repairing the known sources of aging damage before it becomes complicated disease.

Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) is the genomics-based, technology-driven company creating the worlds largest and most comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data. HLI is developing and applying large scale computing and machine learning to make novel discoveries to revolutionize the practice of medicine. HLIs business also includes the HLI Health Nucleus, a genomic powered clinical research program which uses whole genome sequence analysis, advanced clinical imaging and innovative machine learning, along with curated personal health information, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health.

Peter Diamandis (Human Longevity co-founder) has argued at other conferences that technology should be able to enable humans to live as at least long as the longest lived large vertebrate. The Greenland shark has been to live 392 120 years old, resulting in a minimum age of 272 and a maximum of 512. That makes the Greenland shark the longest-lived vertebrate.

SOURCES - Trade Arabia, Human Longevity Inc, Peter Diamandis, George Church

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Future Human lifespan 140 years, 500 years, 1000 years or indefinite with aging damage repair and aging reversal - Next Big Future

The HLI-led team conducted whole genome analysis and comprehensive metabolite profiling on 1,960 adults, including 413 monozygotic twin pairs and 552 dizygotic twin pairs focusing on 644 specific blood metabolites. The study group had been seen in three clinical visits over an 18-year period. The team uncovered that 113 people or 10% of the 1,054 non-related people in the study, carried heterozygous rare variants that influence the function of 17 genes. Of these 17 genes 13 are associated with inborn metabolic errors and other pediatric genetic disorders.

The team concluded that these rare variants associated with abnormal blood metabolite profiles are higher than thought in adult populations and could be important factors in adult health. The researchers believe that much more research should be done to further examine the clinical consequences and significance of these rare variants.

Dr. Telenti stated, "The collection of small molecules and chemicals in blood called the metabolome reflect the intimate workings of our body. It was very surprising to us that so many adults would display abnormalities in blood metabolites, and that a high proportion would be the result of genetic defects. We believe the metabolome should be a continued area of research, and our findings today highlight the importance of looking holistically at the human body and all the components that factor into our health and potential for disease."

About Human Longevity, IncHuman Longevity, Inc. (HLI) is the genomic-based, health intelligence company empowering proactive healthcare and enabling a life better lived. HLI combines the largest database of genomic and phenotypic data with machine learning to drive discoveries and revolutionize the practice of medicine. HLI's business areas include the HLI Health Nucleus, a genomic powered clinical research center which uses whole genome sequence analysis, advanced clinical imaging and innovative machine learning, along with curated personal health information, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health; HLIQ Whole Genome and HLIQ Oncology. For more information, please visit http://www.humanlongevity.comor http://www.healthnucleus.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-largest-whole-genome-sequence-analysis-study-human-longevity-inc-led-team-identifies-common-to-rare-variants-in-the-human-blood-metabolome-300418556.html

SOURCE Human Longevity, Inc.

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In Largest Whole Genome Sequence Analysis Study, Human Longevity, Inc.-Led Team Identifies Common-to-Rare ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Scientists gathered in Abu Dhabi for a forum on human longevity said humans may live up to 140 years within the next two generations with one expert arguing that the first person to live 1,000 years is probably already born.

Speaking at the Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum, Dr Brad Perkins, chief medical officer, Human Longevity, said: Right now the most daunting and expensive human health problem that the world is facing is age related chronic disease. Our hypothesis at Human Longevity is that genomics and the technologies that support its application in medicine and drug discovery are going to be the next accelerant in extending a high performance human lifespan.

The two-day part private conference, part public festival aims to tackle some of the worlds largest moonshot challenges.

Dr Maha Barakat, director general, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, argued that the world is in a transition phase, and on the cusp of major improvements in medicine that will help people live longer.

Once we have gone through this phase and through this research we are hearing about, we will be heading towards a phase where we can live longer without disease. And that I would say is the Holy Grail. This is the utopian society that we are heading towards, where we can live much longer.

Speakers shared some of the current developments in medicine which will help to achieve this goal, such as regenerative medicine, which is already a reality.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University, spoke about strategies that exist to promote regeneration include using cells alone, using cells and scaffolds together for structural defects, alongside bio-printing to create human organoid microchips which can be used to test the effectiveness of drugs.

He said challenges exist surrounding cost, scale and regulation, but the goal is to keep bringing these technologies to more patients.

Dr Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, US, and chief science officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process, argued that the first person to live to 1,000 years is already probably alive today.

He further commented that fixing ageing is difficult, but not impossible and the only way in which people are going to stay alive a long time is by staying healthy a long time.

He further concluded: We won World War II and World War I. World War III hasnt happened yet. But World War 0 which we have been fighting against nature since the dawn of civilization is still there to be won.

The Aspen Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum is a collaboration between Tamkeen, a Government of Abu Dhabi-owned company, and the Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies organisation based in the US.

The event was held in partnership with McKinsey & Company, the UAE Space Agency, Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, Health Authority Abu Dhabi, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, US-UAE Business Council, NYUAD, The National, Al Ittihad, DubaiEye and Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas. -TradeArabia News Service

The rest is here:
Get ready to live 140 years; maybe even 1000! - Trade Arabia

Craig Venter, the man in the late 1990s who, frustrated by the slow progress of the government-funded Human Genome Project, launched an effort that sequenced human DNA two years earlier than planned[is] back with his most ambitious project since his historic breakthrough 17 years ago. Hes raised $300 million from investors including Celgene and GE Ventures for a new firm, Human Longevity, thats trying to take the DNA information he helped unlock and figure out how to leverage it to cheat death for years, or even decades.

Craig Venter

With Human Longevity, Venter hopes to solve the problem that ultimately limited the efficacy of Celera and the Human Genome Project. Those two groups produced an average DNA sequence. Thats incredibly important for a science textbook, but for individuals, its the differenceshow one persons genes are different from anothers, leading to different noses, eye colors and, yes, diseasesthat matter.

Human Longevity initially sequenced DNA from 40,000 people who had participated in clinical trials for the pharmaceutical companies Roche and AstraZeneca. Venter says this work has led to the discovery of genetic variations that can be found in young people but not older onesmeaning the young folks had genes incompatible with surviving into old age. Figuring out what these genes do could be the kind of breakthrough that would turn the promise of genome sequencing into a lifesaver.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Craig Venter Mapped The Genome. Now Hes Trying To Decode Death

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Decoding death: Craig Venter's quest to uncover secret to immortality in our DNA - Genetic Literacy Project

How do top CEOs lead during this exponential age?

How do you manage the explosion of information and onslaught of increasing competition?

How do you sort through the abundance of opportunity and prevent getting burned out?

How do you maintain agility during todays tsunami of change?

Todays blog is the first of three parts deriving insights and advice from three incredible, forward-thinking leaders: Beth Comstock, Sue Siegel, and Arianna Huffington (their bios are below).

Beth, Sue and Arianna participated in my 2017 Abundance 360 CEO Summit in a module called Exponential Leadership.

There is post in this blog for any exponential leader, so lets dive in.

Beth Comstock is the vice chairman of GE. In this capacity, she leads GE's efforts to accelerate new growth. She heads GE's business innovations including GE Lighting, GE Ventures, GE Licensing, GE sales, marketing and communications. And since 2008, she has served as GE's Chief Marketing Commercial Officer.

Sue Siegel is the CEO of GE Ventures. She heads their growth innovation business investing, licensing new creations. Previously, Sue was the President of Affymetrix, and shes had 30 years of combined commercial experience. She's also on my board at Human Longevity Inc., which I'm very proud of, and GE is an investor in HLI.

Arianna Huffington is the founder of Huffington Post, the Founder and CEO of Thrive Global and a fellow Greek. She is the author of 15 books, including "Thrive - The Sleep Revolution. She's been named by Time Magazine and by all of us as one of the most influential people on the planet.

All three of these leaders had extraordinary insights to share about leadership in exponential times.

For part 1, lets dive into Beths top takeaways.

Beth has an extraordinary mindset as a leader at GE.

These days, I think you have to be constantly thinking about what's next, what's new, and how do I adapt, Beth began, during her address to A360 members.

Beth outlined eight principles for exponential leadership. Read carefully.

1. Be a Mission-Based, Emergence Leader: If you're a leader today, your job is change and culture. It's a lot of other things, but it doesnt matter where you are in the organization, [the most important aspects] are change and culture. The old is going away (but it has not fully disappeared), the new is emerging and we're all trying to make sense of it. Change suddenly shows up and it's disruptive. An emergence leader is constantly focused on and ready for change.

2. Organize Around Information Flows: In the digital age, information moves fast. To keep up with information flows, you have to ditch hierarchy. There's no room for bureaucracy. It's about openness, candor, radical feedback and full transparency. If you organize your organization around these tenets, youll thrive. At GE, we've really reorganized ourselves as a digital industrial company digitizing everything we can get our hands on.

3. Empower Individuals: Build a team of people who are prepared for change and empower them to do great work. The question is: how do you get people to get excited to grab power and go for it? More autonomy.

4. Define your company's MO - Mindset Orientation: Mindset is everything. As a leader, you must provide the vision and then allow your teams to figure their way out. Create a mindset that incentivizes them to do what they need to do the fastest, best way they can. It means they may fail. You should encourage them to fail fast, learn from their mistakes, and keep going. At GE, this process is called FastWorks, and it's built on lean startup methodology.

5. Establish Feedback Loops: Exponential leaders must both give and receive feedbackand importantly, they have to actually use it. Beth offers three ideas here:

First: One of the things we've done at GE is we've actually gotten rid of our employee performance reviews. Anyone in the organization can give anyone feedback. I just did a Facebook Live event last week and one of my young colleagues in the company gave me some feedback. It wasn't so good... You weren't looking at the camera at the right point. You looked like you were distracted. It was hard feedback to receive, but it was encouraged.

Second: Beth suggests asking your team a very direct question that yields a lot of value: What is the one thing that is true that you think I dont want to hear? Beth comments that youll be amazed what youll learn. Its extremely valuable.

Third: Rather than doing long, convoluted employee surveys, stick to a simple feedback mechanism: Continue, or consider. You get feedback that says either Continue doing X or Consider changing X to make it better. Its really simple, fast and actionable.

6. Get Used to Living in the In-Between: Exponential leaders are comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. This is going to be key to survive the change that is coming. Beth advises, Get used to the ambiguity of working with people who know how to figure it out and who don't need as much instruction.

7. Mash Up Minds and Machines: Exponential leaders use technology to their advantage, combining the power of computing and data with human leadership. They must develop collaborations between people and machines, between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the people operating in their company, their customers and their executives. Teams that dont do this will be left behind.

8. Prioritize Innovation and Observe Patterns That Block It: Innovating is really hard. Good leaders understand they have to navigate the tension. Sometimes leaders give up, and they don't hold their team accountable for growing. They themselves back off on it. And so is it any wonder that the people on the team deprioritize innovating? Its also important to stick around a while. I've been around my company a while, and it's only after a few years that you start to see the patterns and to understand what went wrong.

Change is coming. Exponential leaders must prepare for it and embrace it.

Beth concluded, I think we still need great leaders with vision, the ability to find and coach people, to encourage people, to help them renew themselves, to go forward

I'm a firm believer that the future still depends on great leaders who can constantly reinvent themselves. Beth Comstock, Vice-Chair, GE

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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8 Principles for Leaders to Make the Most of the Exponential Age - Singularity Hub

The word genome is nearing its 100th birthday. A combination of the German word for gene (gene) and the Greek suffix for body (ome), it was first used in a 1920 botany textbook to describe the entire chromosome set of a given species.

Its surprising that the word is so old because its not a word many of us heard in school. In most schools, teachings about genetics are fairly limited and provide only a basic introduction to the chemical structure of DNA and Mendelian inheritance patterns. Its unfortunate that there arent more educational resources directed toward genetics and genomics, especially in San Diego, because this is a field that is critically important to continuing our regions legacy of scientific innovation, contributing to responsible science policymaking and to the continued growth of our local economy.

Today, genomics is being used to answer a wide range of scientific questions and provide improvements to human health and the human experience in many ways. Data from genome sequencing or genotyping can help identify those at highest risk for cancer and the best treatments for those who are diagnosed with the disease. It can identify the underlying causes of many rare genetic diseases. DNA is used for solving crimes, detecting the sources of foodborne illness, controlling outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the list goes on and on.

To continue this innovation, we need people with a range of skill sets who understand genetics, can work with genomic data, and can translate it into patient care.

As we think about some of the biggest science policy questions of our time, genetics plays a critical role. Responsible policy-making will require policymakers and society to understand genomics to answer big questions whose decisions have great potential to impact society. There are so many policy questions that hinge on genomics.

Should genetic tools like CRISPR be used to modify species of pests like mosquitoes and ticks in order to prevent the spread of diseases like malaria, Zika and Lyme?

Is it ethical to use mitochondrial DNA from a donor egg, nuclear DNA from a mothers egg and a sperm to prevent mitochondrial disease in a baby?

Should we modify food crops and animal species to enable them to thrive in areas of the world whose climates are changing?

Our collective decision-making should rely in good science.

And then theres the matter of our regional heritage of innovation and ensuring the ongoing success of the genomics powerhouses that helped San Diego earn its reputation as the genomics capital of the world.

According to CONNECTs most recent San Diego Innovation Report, in 2015, there were 82 new life sciences companies created in San Diego, undoubtedly many of them genomics companies. With the pioneers of genomic research and medicine like J. Craig Venter, Eric Topol, Stephen Kingsmore, Rob Knight and others choosing to make San Diego home, we have all the makings of success. But where will companies like Illumina, Human Longevity Inc., Epic Sciences, Trovagene and others be without a robust pipeline of workers who understand genomics?

Since STEM disciplines, understanding and talent are so fundamental to our success, Illumina has been quietly funding programs aimed at increasing genomic literacy in San Diego for years. Weve leveraged the generosity of our employees to lend their time and talent to hosting student visits to our UTC headquarters, hosting hundreds of students over the past few years to spark an interest in the power of the genome to change our lives. Our desire to ensure these programs grow and continue led us to establish the Illumina Foundation last year and were proud that it is this year the presenting sponsor of the Biocom Institute Festival of Science and Engineering, San Diego, which kicks off with EXPO Day at Petco Park on Saturday and continues with events throughout the county through March 12.

We hope that our ongoing commitment to growing genomic literacy in the communities where we live and work will not only help create 21st-century jobs in San Diego, but also continue to drive scientific breakthroughs and innovation here and around the globe. Together, by engaging in genomics, its social impacts and the opportunities it creates we have the potential to dramatically improve human health and the human condition as we step forward into the future.

DeSouza is president and CEO of Illumina.

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Genomics literacy critical to San Diego and nation - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Life expectancy among humans is expected to surpass 90 a feat previously thought impossible by scientists for the first time, according to new research.

Evidence suggests that women born in South Korea in 2030 will have an average life expectancy of 90.8 years, while men could reach 84.1 years. People around the world can expect to live longer, while those in the UK who reach 65 in 2030 can look forward to an additional 20- 23 life years.

The research was carried out by scientists from Imperial College London in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO). It examined those from high-income countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia, as well as those from developing economies like Poland, Mexico and the Czech Republic.

Lead researcher Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health said: We repeatedly hear that improvements in human longevity are about to come to an end.

Many people used to believe that 90 years is the upper limit for life expectancy, but this research suggests we will break the 90- year-barrier.

I dont believe were anywhere near the upper limit of life expectancy if there even is one.

The UKs average life expectancy at birth for women will be 85.3 years in 2030, while the average life expectancy of a UK man will be 82.5 years. The team also predicted a 65- year-old man in the UK in 2030 could expect to live an additional 20.9 years, while a 65-year-old woman in the UK could expect 22.7 more years.

Men in Ireland, meanwhile, were among the highest placed when it came to new life expectancy figures. At 83.2 years, men born in 2030 had the fourth-highest life expectancy in Europe, while with 21.7 additional life years expected for 65-year-olds in that year, Irish men placed fifth in the world behind Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea. The research showed that the gap between men and women in terms of life expectancy continues to narrow.

Men traditionally had unhealthier lifestyles, and so shorter life expediencies. They smoked and drank more, and had more road traffic accidents and homicides, Professor Ezzati said. However as lifestyles become more similar between men and women, so does their longevity.

Colin Mathers, co-author from the WHO, added that the overall increase was due to those over 65 living longer combined with the decline in premature deaths among those in their 40s and 50s. The authors agreed that the results mean that there is a responsibility for Governments around the world to make health and social care a priority in the future.

The fact that we will continue to live longer means we need to think about strengthening the health and social care systems to support an ageing population with multiple health needs, said Professor Ezzati.

This is the opposite of what is being done in the era of austerity. We also need to think about whether current pension systems will support us, or if we need to consider working into later life.

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Life expectancy levels to hit 90 - The Irish World Newspaper - The Irish World Newspaper