The Quest for Human Longevity: - A Correction

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-- 'Books Forum' blog
-- 'Health Studies' blog


Greetings,

Recently an interesting story on aging and longevity has been published by the Vancouver Sun:

It's an Old Story
Scientists, Engineers Replace Alchemists, Novelists in The Quest for Human Longevity
By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun

This is a well-written article, which requires some corrections in the part where our scientific activities are described. Attached below are the corrected excerpts, with corrections marked in bold. Then the explanation follows why these corrections are made:

"Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, an American-Russian longevity researcher working at the Center on Aging, NORC/University of Chicago, wrote in the IEEE Spectrum that:

"Many researchers now believe that one day the human life span could be greatly extended by replenishing aging organs with stem cells. We are just now starting down this road. Such regenerative medicine and tissue engineering may sound like science fiction, but a growing number of scientists are taking the first steps to grow tissues and organs to replace failed ones. Laboratories around the world are making progress in building replacement lung, kidney, liver, and heart tissue."

"Gavrilov and his wife, Natalia Gavrilova, galvanized longevity research with their 1991 book, The Biology of Life Span: A Quantitative Approach, which is still cited as an authority by Encyclopedia Britannica."

"The two scientists studied the mathematical models of reliability theory devised by engineers to assess systems failure in computers and other complex machines and then applied them to the human body, shedding light on why and how human beings age and then die."

Here is why the corrections are made. It was written in the published story:

"Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, a Russian longevity researcher working at the University of Chicago, where he's a director of the Centre of Aging..."

while in fact I am an American-Russian researcher, and not a director, please see my publicly available resume here:

http://longevity-science.org/CV-gavrilov.htm

It was also written in the published story that allegedly I

"...told The Independent that "replacing damaged organs to greatly extend the human lifespan by substituting young and healthy for old and failing is no longer science fiction."

I do not recall saying this, and, moreover, please see my original published statement on this topic in bold above.

Hope this helps.

It is amazing to see these inaccuracies happen when the reporters write their stories without even contacting the subjects involved (me in this case). Obviously these mistakes could be easily avoided if the reporters contact me before their publication.

Key words:
Human Longevity, Vancouver Sun, Stephen Hume, Leonid Gavrilov, Center on Aging, NORC, University of Chicago, Natalia Gavrilova, Biology of Life Span, reliability theory, The Independent, Life-Extension, anti-ageing, anti-aging, ageing, aging, longevity


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Project Win Announcements - Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity

See also:
-- 'Books Forum' blog
-- 'Health Studies' blog


Greetings,

Here is an interesting announcement from the President's Office of the National Opinion Research Center, NORC, at the University of Chicago:

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From: President's Office
To: SP-All NORC Employees
Subject: Project Win Announcements - Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity


Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity


Senior Vice President and Director of the Academic Research Centers, is pleased to announce that NORC will study why people live to be 100 years or older.

The new study Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity in the United States is led co-investigators Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova, Research Associates in NORC’s Center on Aging. This husband-and-wife team has written extensively on extreme longevity. Their work has recently shown that longevity can be linked to a mother’s age at her child’s birth, birthplace within in the United States and family socioeconomic background.

The investigators will look at effects of early-life conditions, adult physical characteristics, and marriage and reproductive history on exceptional longevity. The new study takes advantage of U.S. Census and Social Security Administration data, genealogies, and military draft records. Researchers at the universities of Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wisconsin will also collaborate.

The project plan’s innovative use of data was called “exciting” by one of the reviewers at the sponsoring National Institute on Aging. Reviewers also commented favorably on other aspects, notably the strength of the research team and the overall significance of the project aims. The proposal was rated as being among the top 5 percent of all scored proposals reviewed by the NIH.

To read more about the Gavrilovs longevity studies, visit their scientific website at http://longevity-science.org/ ; also you can post your questions and comments at their discussion blog at: http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/

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Key words:
Longevity, centenarians, biodemography, NIH, NIA, longevity genes, parental age, birth order, early-life living conditions, adult physical characteristics, reproductive history, Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity, Leonid Gavrilov, Natalia Gavrilova, Center on Aging, United States, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Social Security Administration datasets, Census data, family reconstitutions, genealogies, military draft records, early-life childhood conditions, National Opinion Research Center, NORC, University of Pennsylvania, University of Utah, University of Wisconsin-Madison.


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- Longevity study to be conducted by the National Opinion Research Center



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