Category Archives: Human Longevity

Aug 27, 2014 The individual on the right hand side pulls the board for its group mates. Credit: Judith Burkart

Scientists have long been searching for the factor that determines why humans often behave so selflessly. It was known that humans share this tendency with species of small Latin American primates of the family Callitrichidae (tamarins and marmosets), leading some to suggest that cooperative care for the young, which is ubiquitous in this family, was responsible for spontaneous helping behavior. But it was not so clear what other primate species do in this regard, because most studies were not comparable.

A group of researchers from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Great Britain, headed by anthropologist Judith Burkart from the University of Zurich, therefore developed a novel approach they systematically applied to a great number of primate species. The results of the study have now been published in Nature Communications.

For their study, Burkart and her colleagues developed the new paradigm of group service, which examines spontaneous helping behavior in a standardized way. With the aid of a simple test apparatus, the researchers studied whether individuals from a particular primate species were prepared to provide other group members with a treat, even if this meant missing out themselves (see box). The scientists applied this standardized test to 24 social groups of 15 different primate species. They also examined whether and how kindergarten children aged between four and seven acted altruistically.

The researchers found that the willingness to provision others varies greatly from one primate species to the next. But there was a clear pattern, as summarized by Burkart: "Humans and callitrichid monkeys acted highly altruistically and almost always produced the treats for the other group members. Chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, however, only did so sporadically." Similarly, most other primate species, including capuchins and macaques, only rarely pulled the lever to give another group member food, if at all even though they have considerable cognitive skills.

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Until now, many researchers assumed that spontaneous altruistic behavior in primates could be attributed to factors they would share with humans: advanced cognitive skills, large brains, high social tolerance, collective foraging or the presence of pair bonds or other strong social bonds. As Burkart's new data now reveal, however, none of these factors reliably predicts whether a primate species will be spontaneously altruistic or not. Instead, another factor that sets us humans apart from the great apes appears to be responsible. Says Burkart: "Spontaneous, altruistic behavior is exclusively found among species where the young are not only cared for by the mother, but also other group members such as siblings, fathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles." This behavior is referred to technically as the "cooperative breeding" or "allomaternal care."

The significance of this study goes beyond identifying the roots of our altruism. Cooperative behavior also favored the evolution of our exceptional cognitive abilities. During development, human children gradually construct their cognitive skills based on extensive selfless social inputs from caring parents and other helpers, and the researchers believe that it is this new mode of caring that also put our ancestors on the road to our cognitive excellence. This study may, therefore, have just identified the foundation for the process that made us human. As Burkart suggests: "When our hominin ancestors began to raise their offspring cooperatively, they laid the foundation for both our altruism and our exceptional cognition."

Test set-up for the altruism study

A treat is placed on a moving board outside the cage and out of the animal's reach. With the aid of a handle, an animal can pull the board closer and bring the food within reach. However, the handle attached to the board is so far from the food that the individual operating it cannot grab the food itself. Moreover, the board instantly rolls back when the handle is released, moving the food out of reach again, which guarantees that only the other members of the group present are able to get at the snack. In this way, the researchers ensure that the animal operating the handle acts purely altruistically.

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The roots of human altruism

Want to become a billionaire? Then help a billion people.

The worlds biggest problems are the worlds biggest business opportunities.

Thats the premise for companies launching out of Singularity University (SU).

Allow me to explain.

In 2008, Ray Kurzweil and I co-founded SU to enable brilliant graduate students to work on solving humanitys grand challenges using exponential technologies.

This week we graduated our sixth Graduate Studies Program (GSP) class.

During the GSP, we ask our students to build a company that positively impacts the lives of 1 billion people within 10 years (we call these 10^9+ companies).

Historically if you wanted to touch a billion people, you had to be Coca Cola, GE or Siemens SiemensToday you can be a guy and gal in a garage.

Id love to share with you some of SUs most interesting 10^9+ companies from the past six summers and some of the new ideas presented from the latest class.

Some great SU 10^9+ Companies

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Turning Big Problems Into Big Business Opportunities

Calico, SENS Research Foundation and Human Longevity Incorporated Are Worth Knowing About
Calico, SENS Research Foundation and Human Longevity Incorporated are worth knowing about. Support efforts to develop radical life extension technologies. We...

By: Michael Ten

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Calico, SENS Research Foundation and Human Longevity Incorporated Are Worth Knowing About - Video

By Elaine Ray and Marie Vasquez

Thousands of Stanford employees attend the annual Multicultural Springfest every year to celebrate the diversity and dedication of the university's staff. This year's event will be Thursday, May 22, at Frost Amphitheater.

When Larry Horton and Dieter Walz started working at Stanford, gasoline was about 30 cents a gallon. That year, AT&T introduced the touch-tone phone. Stanford's president was J.E. Wallace Sterling.

Horton, senior associate vice president for government & community relations, and Walz, a physicist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, marked their 50th anniversaries at Stanford in 2013 and will be among 112 employees whose service will be recognized during the Multicultural Springfest on Thursday, May 22.

Those who have attended Stanford's Multicultural Springfest in the past know that it celebrates the diversity of employees from across the university. But in addition to offering employees good food while showcasing their creative talents, this year's event will recognize many of those who have dedicated decades of service to the university.

During the event, Provost John Etchemendy will recognize employees who reached milestone anniversaries 30th, 35th, 40th, 45th and 50th in 2013.

"The university owes a huge debt of gratitude to staff members who make contributions to Stanford's excellence decade after decade," said David Jones, vice president for human resources. "Every school or unit honors staff for their years of service, but for the Stanford community to come together to celebrate the careers of our longest-serving staff is indicative of the level of appreciation and gratitude we have for them."

Sponsored by the Diversity and Access Office, Thursday's Springfest will take place at Frost Amphitheater from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Performers will include VivAsia!, an aerobic dance program offered by the Health Improvement Program (HIP) that combines a variety of Asian dance styles with music and props across the Asian Diaspora, including Bollywood, K-pop, J-pop and fan dance. The Stanford Soul Line Dancers, a high-stepping, energetic group that has been line dancing on the Farm and beyond since 2002, also will perform. Andrea Hubbard, a grants administrator in the Chemical Engineering Department who performs blues, contemporary, jazz and R&B vocals, will sing.

Anita Black, meeting services coordinator in the office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, and Victor Madrigal, senior manager for student and alumni outreach for the Stanford Alumni Association, will be the emcees.

"This event is an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of university staff and recognize the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace," said Rosa Gonzalez, director of the Diversity and Access Office.

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Multicultural Springfest to celebrate diversity, longevity among Stanford's staff

The 5 Consumer Risks in Retirement-Steve Savant #39;s Money, the Name of the Game
The golden years are fraught with risk that can take the enjoyment out of retirement. The #1 risk to retirement is human longevity. Inflation can erode the p...

By: Ash Brokerage

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The 5 Consumer Risks in Retirement-Steve Savant's Money, the Name of the Game - Video

Oldest living man still thinking about what to achieve next
Oldest living man still thinking about what to achieve next For more hottest and latest news, please subcribe Hot News 24/7 channel: https://www.youtube.com/...

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Oldest living man still thinking about what to achieve next - Video

AKG increases the life expectancy of roundworms by up to 50 per cent It does this by delaying ageing in a way similar to being on a diet It is not known exactly how it works but the discovery could eventually lead to the development of a pill to prevent age-related illnesses

By Emma Innes

Published: 08:50 EST, 15 May 2014 | Updated: 10:02 EST, 15 May 2014

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For much of human history, people have attempted to find the elixir of life.

And now, scientists believe they have found a chemical that could eventually get them one step closer to unlocking the secret to eternal youth.

They discovered that a supplement used by bodybuilders could increase life expectancy.

A supplement used by bodybuilders could increase life expectancy, new research suggests (file picture)

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Could a bodybuilding supplement increase life expectancy? Chemical could hold the secret to eternal youth, scientists ...

Human Longevity Inc., the J. Craig Venter-backed outfit that recently raised $70 million in Series A to help extend the human lifespan through genomics and informatics, has a trio of new hires to help steer its C-suite.

It has hired Bradley Perkins as its chief medical officer, Yaron Turpaz as its chief information officer, and Felix Frueh as its chief scientific officer.

Perkins will oversee all clinical and therapeutic operations at the company, which includes developing the consumer clinics business and stem cell therapeutics.

Perkins was previously chief transformation officer at Vanguard Health Systems, overseeing the 46,000-employee health services providers strategy and innovation initiatives. Among his many roles at the system, Perkins started a $167 million venture capital fund at Vanguard.

He has worked at the Centers for Disease Control, and co-discovered a bacteria that causes cat scratch disease which led to several new bacterial meningitis and pneumonia vaccines, according to Human Longevity.

Working closely with the CDC director, he built a $2 billion state-of-the-art emergency response capability and positioned the improvement of population health as a focus of the health care reform movement within the White House at that time, Human Longevity said.

Turpaz will build the companys genomic and phenotypic databases, and will lead the bioinformatics and software engineering efforts at Human Longevity, the company said. He worked recently at AstraZeneca as the vice president of research and development information technology. Hes worked extensively with big data analytics, Human Longevity said.

Frueh, as chief scientific officer, will lead all genomic operations and will help partner with both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He most recently was an executive partner at Opus Three LLC, a consulting group that provides strategic advice for the pharmaceutical, diagnostics and venture capital arenas.

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Human Longevity Inc. Fills Leadership Roles

If youre lucky, you inherited a longevity gene that will up your chances of living to a ripe old age. Better yet, scientists at the University of California San Francisco have shown that people who have a variant of a longevity gene called KLOTHO are blessed with superior brain skills such as thinking, learning, and memory regardless of their age, sex, or even whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Klotho is the name of a Greek mythological goddess of fate, "who spins the thread of life." The study was funded in part by by the National Institutes of Health and published in May 2014 in the journal Cell Reports.

A release from NIF quotes lead author Dena Dubal, M.D., Ph.D. as saying, "This could be a major step toward helping millions around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. If we could boost the brain's ability to function, we may be able to counter dementias."

The release notes that as people live longer, the effects of aging on the brain will become a greater health issue. This is especially true for dementias, a collection of brain disorders that can cause memory problems, impaired language skills and other symptoms. With the number of dementia cases worldwide estimated to double every 20 years from 35.6 million people in 2010 to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050, the need for treatments is growing.

People who have one copy of a variant, or form, of the KLOTHO gene, called KL-VS, tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke whereas people who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke. In this study, the investigators found that people who had one copy of the KL-VS variant performed better on a battery of cognitive tests than subjects who did not have it, regardless of age, sex or the presence of the apolipoprotein 4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. "This study shows the importance of genes that regulate the multiple aging processes involved in the maintenance of cognitive function," said Suzana Petanceska, Ph.D., program director in NIA's Division of Neuroscience. "Understanding the factors that control the levels and activity of KLOTHO across multiple organ systems may open new therapeutic avenues for prevention of age-related cognitive decline and dementia." The investigators tested a variety of cognitive skills, including learning, memory, and attention. More than 700 subjects, 52 to 85 years old were tested as part of three studies. None had any sign of dementia. Consistent with previous studies, 20 to 25 percent of the subjects had one copy of the KL-VS variant and performed better on the tests than those who had no copies. Performance on the tests decreased with age regardless of whether a subject had one or no copies of the KL-VS gene variant.

The KLOTHO gene provides the blueprint for a protein made primarily by the cells of the kidney, placenta, small intestine, and prostate. A shortened version of the protein can circulate through the blood system. Blood tests showed that subjects who had one copy of the KL-VS variant also had higher levels of circulating klotho protein. The levels decreased with age as others have observed. The researchers speculate that the age-related decrease in circulating levels of klotho protein may have caused some of the decline in performance on the cognitive tests. "These surprising results pave a promising new avenue of research," said Roderick Corriveau, Ph.D., program director at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). "Although preliminary, they suggest that a form of klotho could be used to enhance cognition for people suffering from dementia." To test this idea the researchers genetically engineered mice to overproduce klotho protein. The klotho-enhanced mice lived longer and had higher levels of klotho in the blood and in a brain area known as the hippocampus, which controls some types of learning and memory. Similar to human studies, the klotho-enhanced mice performed better on a variety of learning and memory tests, regardless of age. In one test, the mice remembered the location of a hidden target in a maze better, which allowed them to find it twice as fast as control mice.

Learning is thought to strengthen communication between nerve cells in the brain at structures called synapses. In the hippocampus, many synapses use a chemical called glutamate to communicate. Electrical recordings suggested that klotho makes it more likely these synapses will be strengthened during learning and memory. NMDA receptors control communication at many glutamate synapses. GluN2B subunits are components of some NMDA receptors. Previous studies have shown that the presence of GluN2B at synapses is associated with changes in synaptic strength and learning and memory. In this study, the researchers found that synapses in the brains of klotho-enhanced mice had more GluN2B subunits than control mice. Treating klotho mice with a drug that selectively blocks GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors reduced their ability to perform on learning and memory tests. The results suggest that increasing the presence of GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors may be one way that klotho could enhance cognitive skills. "Overall our results suggest that klotho may increase cognitive reserve or the brain's capacity to perform everyday intellectual tasks," said senior author Lennart Mucke, M.D., director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, San Francisco, CA, and the Joseph B. Martin Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience, and professor of neurology at UCSF.

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Longevity Gene May Be a Brain Booster

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-May-2014

Contact: Christopher G. Thomas thomaschr@ninds.nih.gov 301-496-5751 NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Scientists showed that people who have a variant of a longevity gene, called KLOTHO, have improved brain skills such as thinking, learning and memory regardless of their age, sex, or whether they have a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Increasing KLOTHO gene levels in mice made them smarter, possibly by increasing the strength of connections between nerve cells in the brain. The study was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.

"This could be a major step toward helping millions around the world who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other dementias," said Dena Dubal, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology, the David A. Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neurodegeneration at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the lead author of the study published in Cell Reports. "If we could boost the brain's ability to function, we may be able to counter dementias."

As people live longer the effects of aging on the brain will become a greater health issue. This is especially true for dementias, a collection of brain disorders that can cause memory problems, impaired language skills and other symptoms. With the number of dementia cases worldwide estimated to double every 20 years from 35.6 million people in 2010 to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050, the need for treatments is growing.

Klotho is the name of a Greek mythological goddess of fate, "who spins the thread of life." People who have one copy of a variant, or form, of the KLOTHO gene, called KL-VS, tend to live longer and have lower chances of suffering a stroke whereas people who have two copies may live shorter lives and have a higher risk of stroke. In this study, the investigators found that people who had one copy of the KL-VS variant performed better on a battery of cognitive tests than subjects who did not have it, regardless of age, sex or the presence of the apolipoprotein 4 gene, the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.

"This study shows the importance of genes that regulate the multiple aging processes involved in the maintenance of cognitive function," said Suzana Petanceska, Ph.D., program director in NIA's Division of Neuroscience. "Understanding the factors that control the levels and activity of KLOTHO across multiple organ systems may open new therapeutic avenues for prevention of age-related cognitive decline and dementia."

The investigators tested a variety of cognitive skills, including learning, memory, and attention. More than 700 subjects, 52 to 85 years old were tested as part of three studies. None had any sign of dementia. Consistent with previous studies, 20 to 25 percent of the subjects had one copy of the KL-VS variant and performed better on the tests than those who had no copies. Performance on the tests decreased with age regardless of whether a subject had one or no copies of the KL-VS gene variant.

The KLOTHO gene provides the blueprint for a protein made primarily by the cells of the kidney, placenta, small intestine, and prostate. A shortened version of the protein can circulate through the blood system. Blood tests showed that subjects who had one copy of the KL-VS variant also had higher levels of circulating klotho protein. The levels decreased with age as others have observed. The researchers speculate that the age-related decrease in circulating levels of klotho protein may have caused some of the decline in performance on the cognitive tests.

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Longevity gene may boost brain power