Category Archives: Human Longevity

A 125-year life expectancy for human beings? I have zero desire to stick around that long.

Ah, yes, you speak of a debate among scientists over human longevity. I read about it at Business Insider. Some scientists argue that the maximum age humans may live is 115 years, whereas others argue that 125 years is possible.

A hundred and twenty-five years of watching Republicans and Democrats going at it? The heck with that.

Living is rife with challenges, to be sure. But living a long life has its upsides. Wouldnt you want to visit your parents and other family members for a lot more years than most of us are able? Wouldnt you like to see them all at a Sunday dinner several more times than most human beings are able?

Maybe with your family. My family has taken years off of my life!

I see, but wouldnt it be awesome if some of our finest human beings could stick around longer? Don Rickles, one of the greatest entertainers ever, died this year at 91. How great would it be to keep him around for two more decades?

True, but if Rickles were to stick around longer, that means annoying celebrities would stick around, too, and keep yapping at us every time a Republican becomes president.

There are other upsides to a longer life. What if we could keep our greatest minds around longer? Where would the world be if Einstein had another 25 years to unlock the mysteries of the universe?

But what if he figured out ways to extend human life even further, which would require me and the wife to have to keep coming up with new things to bicker about? Who has that kind of energy?

The downsides are a fair point. As people live longer, they could overburden government programs, such as Social Security. Where would we get all the money to support them?

How about we especially extend the lives of the rich so we can take them to the cleaners?

And living is expensive. If you live to 125, how will you pay for your housing and food and everyday expenses?

Thank goodness McDonalds is always hiring, but I for one have no desire to flip burgers at the age of 125.

The costs of medical care are too high for millions now. I imagine that at 125 years of age, ones medical bills would be difficult to manage.

Look, as a middle-aged guy, who is already showing signs of fatigue, here is what I know about living. Life is largely made up of colds, bills, speeding tickets and people who let you down. These experiences are connected together by a series of mundane tasks.

Did anyone tell you how cheerful you can be? Go on.

Well, these drudgeries are occasionally interrupted by a wonderful meal, a really good laugh with friends or a romantic evening with a lovely woman. Then the mundane stuff starts all over again. Who wants 125 years of that?

A lot of people do. The human lifespan has improved significantly in the past few generations. Millions are living healthy lives beyond the age of 80 today, and, when they were younger, few of them expected to live that long. Why not live relatively good lives until 125?

Because then Id really worry about my slacker son.

Hes 35 years old and still living at home. If we drastically extend lifespans, my wife will have to tell him: Son, youre 100 years old! When are you going to move out of the basement and get a job?

Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc.

Read more from the original source:
Purcell: Living to 125 too much of a good thing? - The Sentinel

A shot of klotho, a hormone associated with longevity, seems to make mice smarter. Klotho is a naturally occurring hormone in the body. More than two decades ago, Japanese researchers discovered that this hormone plays a role in aging. People with more klotho in their body, tend to live longer and to retain more of their facultiesthat is to stay sharpwell into old age.

Researchers injected three types of mice with a portion of the protein. They injected young mice, aged mice, and mice genetically altered to have brains similar to that which we would see in Alzheimers or Parkinsons patients in humans.

Within hours they showed better cognitive function, says Dubal.

Since you cant exactly administer a mouse an IQ test, they assessed brain power based on the mices ability to navigate a series of water mazes, in an experiment that sounds on par with human a trip to Wisconsins famed waterslide park, The Dells.

They found that mice that had daily injections and were better able to navigate the maze (as measured by the distance traveled to find a hidden platform) than their control group peers. In a classic example of work smarter, not harder, the klotho mice were just much more efficient seekers.

We tested them two weeks later in a different cognitive test and they were still smarter, says Dubal, which suggested that getting the klotho protein into their bodies combined with brain training and stimulation had a long-lasting effect in their brain. Because the half-life of the protein is only seven and a half hours long, any of the protein should have been long out of their system.

Cell Reports Peripheral Elevation of a Klotho Fragment Enhances Brain Function and Resilience in Young, Aging, and -Synuclein Transgenic Mice

Highlights

A klotho fragment (KL-F) enhances cognition in young and aging mice KL-F counters deficits in -synuclein mice without altering pathogenic protein levels KL-F induces GluN2B cleavage and increases NMDAR-dependent synaptic plasticity Selective NMDAR blockade of GluN2B subunits abolishes acute KL-F effects

Summary

Cognitive dysfunction and decreased mobility from aging and neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases, are major biomedical challenges in need of more effective therapies. Increasing brain resilience may represent a new treatment strategy. Klotho, a longevity factor, enhances cognition when genetically and broadly overexpressed in its full, wild-type form over the mouse lifespan. Whether acute klotho treatment can rapidly enhance cognitive and motor functions or induce resilience is a gap in our knowledge of its therapeutic potential. Here, we show that an -klotho protein fragment (KL-F), administered peripherally, surprisingly induced cognitive enhancement and neural resilience despite impermeability to the blood-brain barrier in young, aging, and transgenic -synuclein mice. KL-F treatment induced cleavage of the NMDAR subunit GluN2B and also enhanced NMDAR-dependent synaptic plasticity. GluN2B blockade abolished KL-F-mediated effects. Peripheral KL-F treatment is sufficient to induce neural enhancement and resilience in mice and may prove therapeutic in humans.

Introduction

Cognitive dysfunction and decreased mobility from aging and age-related neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) are major biomedical challenges. Because more effective treatments are needed, and clinical trials targeting putative pathogenic proteins have failed, it is critical to develop alternate or complimentary therapeutic strategies. In light of this urgent medical need for our rapidly aging populations, delaying aging itself or increasing the function and resilience of the brain (Bennett, 2017, McEwen and Morrison, 2013) may represent new treatment strategies.

More here:
Klotho longevity hormone helped make mice smarter - Next Big Future

A 125-year life expectancy for human beings? I have zero desire to stick around that long.

Ah, yes, you speak of a debate among scientists over human longevity. I read about it at Business Insider. Some scientists argue that the maximum age humans may live is 115 years, whereas others argue that 125 years is possible.

A hundred and twenty-five years of watching Republicans and Democrats going at it? The heck with that.

Living is rife with challenges, to be sure. But living a long life has its upsides. Wouldnt you want to visit your parents and other family members for a lot more years than most of us are able? Wouldnt you like to see them all at a Sunday dinner several more times than most human beings are able?

Advertisement

Maybe with your family. My family has taken years off of my life!

I see, but wouldnt it be awesome if some of our finest human beings could stick around longer? Don Rickles, one of the greatest entertainers ever, died this year at 91. How great would it be to keep him around for two more decades?

True, but if Rickles were to stick around longer, that means annoying celebrities would stick around, too, and keep yapping at us every time a Republican becomes president.

There are other upsides to a longer life. What if we could keep our greatest minds around longer? Where would the world be if Einstein had another 25 years to unlock the mysteries of the universe?

But what if he figured out ways to extend human life even further, which would require me and the wife to have to keep coming up with new things to bicker about? Who has that kind of energy?

The downsides are a fair point. As people live longer, they could overburden government programs, such as Social Security. Where would we get all the money to support them?

How about we especially extend the lives of the rich so we can take them to the cleaners?

And living is expensive. If you live to 125, how will you pay for your housing and food and everyday expenses?

Thank goodness McDonalds is always hiring, but I for one have no desire to flip burgers at the age of 125.

The costs of medical care are too high for millions now. I imagine that at 125 years of age, ones medical bills would be difficult to manage.

Look, as a middle-aged guy, who is already showing signs of fatigue, here is what I know about living. Life is largely made up of colds, bills, speeding tickets and people who let you down. These experiences are connected together by a series of mundane tasks.

Did anyone tell you how cheerful you can be? Go on.

Well, these drudgeries are occasionally interrupted by a wonderful meal, a really good laugh with friends or a romantic evening with a lovely woman. Then the mundane stuff starts all over again. Who wants 125 years of that?

A lot of people do. The human lifespan has improved significantly in the past few generations. Millions are living healthy lives beyond the age of 80 today, and, when they were younger, few of them expected to live that long. Why not live relatively good lives until 125?

Because then Id really worry about my slacker son.

Why?

Hes 35 years old and still living at home. If we drastically extend lifespans, my wife will have to tell him: Son, youre 100 years old! When are you going to move out of the basement and get a job?

Tom Purcell is syndicated by Cagle Cartoons Inc. Readers may write to him via email at Tom@TomPurcell.com.

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TOM PURCELL: Too much of a good thing? - The Daily Freeman

1091 0 Posted on Aug 08, 2017, 5 a.m.

New study finds that the exceptionally long lifespan of the Greenland shark may provide clues to extending human lifespan.

About Greenland Sharks

Greenland sharks are considered the longest living vertebrates. A team of scientists led by Julius Nielson, a marine biologist from the University of Copenhagen, used radiocarbon dating on 28 Greenland sharks. They established that one of the female sharks was approximately 392 years.

Research Surrounding the Greenland Sharks

The longevity of the Greenland sharks has stirred interest in the research world. Scientists have worked towards identifying the genes responsible for this unique trait.

Could these genes be used to extend the lifespan of human beings? Scientists believe that a successful identification and extraction of the genes could be a major milestone in achieving longevity among human beings.

Researchers at the University of Exeter have studied almost 100 Greenland sharks. They have sequenced their mitochondrial genome. The achievement set an excellent stage for researchers to scrutinize the sequence and understand the reason behind the shark's longevity.

Prof Kim Praebel, the lead scientist of the research, explained why the research is vital. He noted that unraveling the secrets behind the Green shark's longevity may tremendously boost the efforts on the improvement of humans' lifespan.

Why is the Study of Greenland Sharks Important?

Discovery of the genes responsible for longevity in Greenland sharks would be a vital achievement in the research world. It would explain the limited life spans in almost all the vertebrates. Additionally, the discovery would allow the scientists to study whether the genes can be used to prolong the life of the human beings.

The research at the University of Exeter found out that the Greenland sharks swim long distances across the Atlantic Ocean. They discovered that they mate in the deeply hidden fjords of the Arctic. This realization is instrumental in uncovering the negative effects of the activities of human beings on aquatic life. The study of the tissues and the bones of the animal forms genetic data that is crucial in determining when contaminants and chemicals from industries started affecting the marine. The findings would be of considerable benefit to the environment and marine life protection.

The findings of this research have been presented in various forums including the Fisheries Society of the British Isles symposium. The scientists hope that the findings will boost the conservation efforts of the Greenland shark species and other wildlife in the ecosystem.

Excerpt from:
Do Sharks Hold the Secret to Longevity? - Anti Aging News

Klotho, in ancient Greek mythology, is one of the Fates controlling the span of human destiny tasked as she was with cutting the string that determined the length of a persons life. Klotho is also a naturally occurring hormone in the body. More than two decades ago, Japanese researchers discovered that this hormone plays a role in aging. People with more klotho in their body, tend to live longer and to retain more of their facultiesthat is to stay sharpwell into old age.

There are many elderly people who walk around and have completely normal, sharp vibrant brain function despite the fact that they are much older and the fact that they have a lot of disease toxins in the brain, Dr. Dena Dubal a neurobiologist at the University of California, San Franciscos Memory and Aging Center told Popular Science.

Dubal is the author on a study released today in the journal Cell Reports that looks at what happens to brain function when you inject klotho protein into mice.

Aging researchers like Dubal arent interested in extending life for its own sakethey dont have a Methuselah complexbut rather because aging is the biggest factor for disease. If they can find a way to slow aging, or at least its effects, they might find a way to allow us to avoid the cognitive declines, and diseases such as stroke, heart disease, and diabetes that tend to come as we flip through more pages on the calendar.

A few years ago, we discovered in collaboration with several people that in human populations those people that had higher levels of klotho had better cognitive functions in normal aging, says Dual.

Which is great if you happen to be genetically blessed with higher levels of klotho, less great if youre not.

Earlier studies have looked at the impacts of klotho on longevity and health, including brain health, but they tended to rely on genetically modified mice. The genes of these mice had been modified to allow them to produce more klotho or less.

Those studies found that mice modified to produce more klotho lived longer, which is promising. But despite recent advances, genetically modifying humans is still an ethical minefield away in the future, especially if the modifications are being made to improve wellbeing as opposed to preventing disease. And, genetically altering embryos might help future populations, but it doesnt do much for those of us already living. So, Dubal wanted to see is if mice injected with klothoacting essentially a hormonal supplementwould show cognitive improvements.

The answer, seems to be yes.

To get the result, Dubal and her colleagues injected three types of mice with a portion of the protein. They injected young mice, aged mice, and mice genetically altered to have brains similar to that which we would see in Alzheimers or Parkinsons patients in humans.

Within hours they showed better cognitive function, says Dubal.

Since you cant exactly administer a mouse an IQ test, they assessed brain power based on the mices ability to navigate a series of water mazes, in an experiment that sounds on par with human a trip to Wisconsins famed waterslide park, The Dells.

They found that mice that had daily injections and were better able to navigate the maze (as measured by the distance traveled to find a hidden platform) than their control group peers. In a classic example of work smarter, not harder, the klotho mice were just much more efficient seekers.

We tested them two weeks later in a different cognitive test and they were still smarter, says Dubal, which suggested that getting the klotho protein into their bodies combined with brain training and stimulation had a long-lasting effect in their brain. Because the half-life of the protein is only seven and a half hours long, any of the protein should have been long out of their system.

There are a few caveats.

First, this was an experiment in micenot in humans. While its incredibly promising, the study results are short term and they werent looking for side effects. The pace at which a promising scientific study is turned into a supplement of dubious efficacy is stunning these days, so please dont subject yourself to some back-alley klotho injection. Between resveratrol and superfoods weve been there before.

At the same time, we know that klotho levels can be affected not only by genetics - but also by stress. If you want to help your body keep its klotho levels at your own peak you might want to try proven stress reduction techniques like exercise and chilling out about your own impending mortality.

Finally, the researchers arent sure how klotho seems to be generating this effect because the protein is too big to pass from the body into the brain. For a long time, weve studied the brain in isolation from the body with the brain mostly telling the body what to do, and the body acting like a series of censors that give the brain useful data. But this study like our growing understanding of the connection between our microbiome and brain health, and exercise and brain health, this study touches on our growing understanding of how the body connects to the brain to help make the brain more resilient.

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An extra dose of this longevity hormone helped make mice smarter ... - Popular Science

Updated 6 hours ago

A 125-year life expectancy for human beings? I have zero desire to stick around that long.

Ah, yes, you speak of a debate among scientists over human longevity. I read about it at Business Insider. Some scientists argue that the maximum age humans may live is 115 years, whereas others argue that 125 years is possible.

A hundred and twenty-five years of watching Republicans and Democrats going at it? The heck with that.

Living is rife with challenges, to be sure. But living a long life has its upsides. Wouldn't you want to visit your parents and other family members for a lot more years than most of us are able? Wouldn't you like to see them all at a Sunday dinner several more times than most human beings are able?

Maybe with your family. My family has taken years off of my life!

I see, but wouldn't it be awesome if some of our finest human beings could stick around longer? Don Rickles, one of the greatest entertainers ever, died this year at 91. How great would it be to keep him around for two more decades?

True, but if Rickles were to stick around longer, that means annoying celebrities would stick around, too, and keep yapping at us every time a Republican becomes president.

There are other upsides to a longer life. What if we could keep our greatest minds around longer? Where would the world be if Einstein had another 25 years to unlock the mysteries of the universe?

But what if he figured out ways to extend human life even further, which would require me and the wife to have to keep coming up with new things to bicker about? Who has that kind of energy?

The downsides are a fair point. As people live longer, they could overburden government programs, such as Social Security. Where would we get all the money to support them?

How about we especially extend the lives of the rich so we can take them to the cleaners?

And living is expensive. If you live to 125, how will you pay for your housing and food and everyday expenses?

Thank goodness McDonald's is always hiring, but I for one have no desire to flip burgers at the age of 125.

The costs of medical care are too high for millions now. I imagine that at 125 years of age, one's medical bills would be difficult to manage.

Look, as a middle-aged guy, who is already showing signs of fatigue, here is what I know about living. Life is largely made up of colds, bills, speeding tickets and people who let you down. These experiences are connected together by a series of mundane tasks.

Did anyone tell you how cheerful you can be? Go on.

Well, these drudgeries are occasionally interrupted by a wonderful meal, a really good laugh with friends or a romantic evening with a lovely woman. Then the mundane stuff starts all over again. Who wants 125 years of that?

A lot of people do. The human life span has improved significantly in the past few generations. Millions are living healthy lives beyond the age of 80 today, and, when they were younger, few of them expected to live that long. Why not live relatively good lives until 125?

Because then I'd really worry about my slacker son.

Why?

He's 35 years old and still living at home. If we drastically extend life spans, my wife will have to tell him: Son, you're 100 years old! When are you going to move out of the basement and get a job?'

Tom Purcell, a freelance writer, lives in Library. His books include Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood and Wicked Is the Whiskey, a Sean McClanahan mystery. Visit him on the web at TomPurcell.com. Email him at: Tom@TomPurcell.com.

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Living to 125: Too much of a good thing? - Tribune-Review

A dish with human embryos.Photograph by Sandy Huffaker Getty Images

As far as groundbreaking developments go, there are few technologies that have captured the life science world's imagination like CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that holds promise in everything from treating sickle cell disease to sussing out appropriate gene targets in the fight against HIV. Now, U.S. scientists have reached a revolutionary new milestone in CRISPR-Cas9 development, successfully modifying embryos to cut out defective genetic code that would have caused an inherited disease.

A study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday outlines the process used by researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, and Korea's Institute for Basic Science.The faulty genetic code that would have caused hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was successfully repaired using CRISPR during the in vitro fertilization process. It wasn't a flawless successthe rate of fixed embryos moved from the naturally expected 50% to 74%. And, to be clear, this isn't the first time that CRISPR has been tested in a non-animal settinglast year, Chinese scientists launched the first known trials in humans .

But the new embryo experiments were striking for both their efficacy and a lack of adverse events like mutations in other parts of the embryos' genomes. "We have demonstrated the possibility to correct mutations in a human embryo in a safe way and with a certain degree of efficiency," said the Salk Institute's Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who co-authored the Nature study.

The achievement is already drawing some controversy. Bioethicists have previously questioned whether or not modifying embryoseven for the purposes of preventing a disease's spreadcould foster a slippery slope. Editing human embryos with CRISPR should be a long way off, as J. Craig Venter, co-founder of Human Longevity, Inc and a genome expert, put it during Fortune 's second annual Brainstorm Health conference in May. Not something we do next week.

But these embryos weren't actually allowed to develop beyond a few days. And groups like the American Society of Human Genetics mostly center their opposition on modifying embryos for implantation into a human. As for the possibility of "designer babies," CRISPR technology isn't nearly advanced enough to make anything approaching that feasible, as Belmonte explains.

That's part of the reason why the U.S. researchers took up the recommendations of an ethics committee which concluded that "with significant oversight and continued dialogue, the use of gene correction technologies in human embryos for the purpose of answering basic science questions needed to evaluate germline gene correction prior to the use in human models" was acceptable.

This essay appears in today's edition of the Fortune Brainstorm Health Daily. Get it delivered straight to your inbox.

Excerpt from:
American Scientists Successfully Edited Faulty Genes In Human Embryos. Is That Ethical? - Fortune

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, discusses successes and failures during a Stanford University business forum in 2015. (Stanford Business Photo / Stacy H. Geiken)

Khosla Ventures, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm whose interests range from biofuels to spaceflight, was revealed today as the lead investor in Viome, the wellness monitoring startup co-founded by Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain.

Khoslas role was among the additional details that Viome provided today as it formally announced its $15 million Series A funding round. The investment firstcame to light last week in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but Khoslas role wasnt previously disclosed.

Bold Capital Partners, the venture fund associated with Singularity University as well as tech entrepreneur and XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, is also among Viomes backers.

The Series A round brings Viomes total funding to $21 million, the company said.

Viome said one seat on its board would go to Khosla Ventures founder, managing partner Vinod Khosla. The 62-year-old, Indian-born billionaire is a legend in Silicon Valleys entrepreneurial and philanthropic circles.

Viome is a transformational healthcare company with a team that comprises decades of experience across AI, health and science, and a singular mission of keeping people healthy, Khosla said in a news release. By investing in Viome, were investing in a future where preventable illnesses are a thing of the past.

That sentiment echoes Jains view: With Viome, were allowing people to reclaim control of their health so that chronic illness can become a choice rather than just a matter of bad luck, Jain, the companys CEO, said in the release.

The key to Viomes monitoring service is a series of diagnostic tests that analyze subscribers blood, urine, saliva and stool samples to assess their metabolism as well as the genetic makeup of the microbial communities inside their guts.

Researchers are finding increasing evidence that the balance of a persons gut microbes, known collectively as the microbiome, is linked a wide range of health factors. Viomes AI-based platform, developed in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, analyzes the data from the diagnostic tests and offers personalized recommendations on diet and lifestyle.

The monitoring service doesnt yet offer medical advice, however. For that, Viome would have to get the go-ahead from the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Current price for the service is $59 a month, or $599 a year, which covers two rounds of testing in the course of a year.

Several thousand customers are using the service under the terms of Viomes early beta program, the company said, and additional customers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, India and the Middle East can sign up to join the program when availability is widened next month.

Viome said it has 45 employees in Los Alamos, New York and Cupertino, Calif.

Like Khosla, Jain has been involved in a wide variety of startups, including BlueDot,Moon Express,InfoSpace,InteliusandTalentWise.The $6 million in initial funding for Viome came from BlueDot, which Jain co-founded as an innovation factory to jump-start technological moonshots.

Jains career has not been without controversy: Infospace was hit hard when the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, leading to a years-long flurry of lawsuits that entangled Jain, other executives and shareholders. Millions of dollars changed hands in a series of legal settlements to resolve the disputes.

Khoslas newly reported involvement should raise Viomes profile in whats becoming a crowded field of ventures that monitor the microbiome and personal wellness. Potential rivals include Seattle-based Arivaleas well as uBiome,HabitandDayTwo.

Jains fellow founder at BlueDot, Deepak Savadatti, serves as Viomes president. The companys other executives include chief science officer Momo Vuyisich, a veteran researcher from Los Alamos; chief medical officer Helen Messier, who previously worked at Human Longevity Inc.; and chief technology officer Guruduth Banavar, who helped create Watson AI technologies at IBM.

See original here:
Khosla Ventures leads the charge for Naveen Jain's Viome wellness ... - GeekWire

NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --VIOME, the AI powered wellness service providing unprecedented insights into your personal health, has raised $15 million in Series A funding to support the launch of its at-home health kit, specifically targeting the Microbiome. VIOME is currently operating as an early beta program with several thousand customers actively using the product. Interested customers can sign up today as the company plans to announce wide availability in the US, UK, Canada, India and Middle East starting in September.

The new round brings VIOME's total funding to $21 Million led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Bold Capital Partners. Khosla Ventures, led by managing partner Vinod Khosla, will receive one seat on the VIOME board.

"VIOME is a transformationalhealthcarecompany with a team that comprises decades of experience across AI, health and science, and a singular mission of keeping people healthy," says Vinod Khosla. "By investing in VIOME, we're investing in a future where preventable illnesses are a thing of the past."

VIOME uses state-of-the-art proprietary technology licensed exclusively through its partnership with the prestigious Los Alamos National Laboratory. Its services offer unparalleled visibility into the ecosystem of the body to create unique molecular profiles for its subscribers. VIOME identifies and quantifies all microorganisms in the gut, but more importantly, analyzes what they are actually doing. By applying machine learning to this analysis, VIOME then makes personalized nutritional recommendations to balance the gut microbiome and ecosystem inside the body.

These results offer complete transparency into your own health and the nutrition you need to prevent many of today's chronic illnesses. With this insight, illness can become a choice - a matter of your own decisions.

"Los Alamos National Laboratory has exclusively licensed our advanced transcriptome technology to Viome which allows rapid identification of micro-organisms and their metabolic activities," says Duncan McBranch, Chief Technology Officer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "This technology was originally developed by leading scientists at the lab to address our national security challenges, and with VIOME's focus on personalized healthcare, it can be used to maintain good health and to prevent chronic disease."

With 45 employees located in Cupertino, Los Alamos, and New York, VIOME was founded by a group of leading entrepreneurs in science and technology. This includes innovator, philanthropist and founder of Moon Express, Intelius, TalentWise and InfoSpace, Naveen Jain.

"Modern healthcare is really symptom-care. It puts the needs of the system hospitals and insurance companies, above the patient," says Jain, who serves as CEO. "With VIOME, we're allowing people to reclaim control of their health so that chronic illness can become a choice rather than just a matter of bad luck."

Building an expert team, VIOME's leadership includes Chief Technology Officer Guruduth Banavar, who led the creation of Watson AI technologies at IBM, before joining VIOME to apply these technologies to enhance human wellness.

Chief Science Officer Momo Vuyisich brings more than 25 years of R&D experience in many scientific disciplines. He was most recently a scientist and leader of the Applied Genomics team at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Chief Medical Officer Helen Messier is a national leader in personalized "omics"-based medical care, previously serving as medical director, Genomics at Human Longevity, Inc.

VIOME also counts Mark Hyman (Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine), Dave Asprey (Founder of Bulletproof), Aubrey De Grey (Biomedical Gerontologist), Dallas Hartwig (New York Times Best-Selling Author), and Dr. Tom O'Bryan (Founder of theDr.com) as ambassadors.

Receiving 365 days of wellness a year from VIOME, people are empowered to achieve their goals and live a more informed, healthy and happy life. Learn more atVIOME.com.

Media ContactFactory PR // rel="nofollow">viome@factorypr.com

About VIOMEVIOME is a wellness service that applies artificial intelligence to complex biological data to provide personalized diet, nutrition and lifestyle recommendations for healthy living.

VIOME tailors its service to evaluate and pinpoint potential issues in the body related to the Microbiome, which tunes our immune system, keeps us under control and reduces inflammation. VIOME specifically targets the bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungus and mold in our system that works symbiotically with the body to provide the nutrition needed to feel energetic and stay healthy.

About Naveen JainNaveen Jain is an entrepreneur and philanthropist driven to solve the world's biggest challenges and epidemics through innovation. To date, he has founded several companies revolutionizing the science, technology and medicine arenas. They include Moon Express, BlueDot, VIOME, Intelius, Talent Wise and InfoSpace.

Naveen is a trustee of the board at the XPRIZE Foundation where he recently launched a million-dollar Women Safety XPRIZE to empower women around the world. In addition, Naveen is also on the board of Singularity University and has been awarded many honors for his accomplishments and entrepreneurial successes.

About KhoslaKhosla Ventures provides venture assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs working on breakthrough technologies. The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. With over four billion dollars under management, the firm focuses on a broad range of areas including consumer, enterprise, education, advertising, financial services, semiconductors, health, big data, agriculture/food, sustainable energy and robotics. Khosla Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif.

About BOLD Capital PartnersBOLD Capital Partners ("BOLD"), is a venture capital firm targeting investments in early stage and growth technology companies. BOLD is particularly interested in entrepreneurial leaders that leverage exponential technologies to transform the world and create innovative solutions to humanities' grand challenges. The investment platform leverages the resources of Singularity University (www.su.org) and the Peter Diamandis ecosystem (www.diamandis.com) to actively seek and support world-class entrepreneurs. BOLD has offices in Santa Monica and Palo Alto, California.

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Healthcare Disrupter VIOME Raises $15 Million In Series A Funding ... - Markets Insider

Given renewed government efforts to stimulate innovation-based industries, how can Thai institutions drive entrepreneurship among students?

JAIN DIPAK: In understanding the need for entrepreneurship among new graduates and young professionals, it is important to consider the historic context of the global business model as a whole. Businesses have evolved tremendously over the past decades and centuries. During the time of colonialism the major players in global commerce were both the colonial powers and the colonies themselves, with the colonialists bringing the know-how and the colonies defined by their natural resources. In the post-colonial era the needle shifted towards capitalism, with the major players becoming corporations and other private enterprises. What has occurred in this century, however, is the emergence of an entrepreneurship-based model that complements capitalism and may soon overtake it.

The younger generation of upcoming professionals wish to do things on their own, and that entrepreneurial spirit is becoming more visible. One of the challenges in Thailand, and in many countries in Asia, is overcoming the prevalence of traditional, top-down educational models that were not designed to teach the skills necessary to succeed in todays dynamic business environment. But this is changing, and post-graduate institutions in particular are rethinking the way they teach. In addition, the market mechanisms are now there in order for entrepreneurship in Asia to truly take off, with angel investors and the venture capital market serving that role.

One unique difference between the Asian and Western business models is that family businesses are more prominent in this part of the world, and these too will serve as yet another tool to encourage entrepreneurship. Members of the new generation within a family business are increasingly looking to spin off into their own ventures, and the family model is as good a source of funding as any. Thus, it is only a matter of time, in my opinion, before entrepreneurship will become a phenomenon.

Which niche management specialisations are currently being favoured over general businesses administration given Thailands trajectory?

JAIN: In many ways, todays MBA programmes have evolved and adapted to changing demands from students, in terms of the format, the duration and the focus of programmes. When management education began, the aim of students was to attain a job either within a major corporation or, later, within a consulting firm or investment bank. Today we are seeing more specialised and specific masters programmes that cater to the needs of individual industries.

There are several such instances in Thailand where specific industries are truly driving economic growth and the demand for top-level management will grow in the near future. Masters degrees in health care management, for example, can be a very big product moving forward as human longevity increases and the need for well-trained health care professionals booms. Tourism is another sector driving growth in Thailand, and hospitality management degrees remain in high demand. Other examples include degrees in real estate management due to South-east Asias rapid development, degrees in technology management as the world continues its shift from analogue to digital and degrees in public policy as in much of the developing world state-owned enterprises and government-linked companies continue to drive growth and innovation.

These programmes instil very tangible technical skills, something that start-ups in particular look for. Business schools exist to teach skills, tools and concepts, but continuing education is required to apply those to specific industries. I am bullish on the concept that we as educators must teach professionals how to run businesses, how to convert start-ups into successful entities and how to succeed in life beyond that point.

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Dipak Jain, Former Director, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration: Interview - Oxford Business Group