Nir Barzilai: “Take out the noise and focus on tackling aging”
Dorian Gray, Wolverine and Peter Pan – ahead of the Longevity Leaders Congress, Dr Nir Barzilai talks longevity labels and tackling aging.
Dr Nir Barzilai, Director of the The Institute of Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is a key player in the longevity space. With a keen interest in the biology of tackling aging, he is looking at the genetics of exceptional longevity, exploring the hypothesis that centenarians have protective genes, which allow the delay of aging or for the protection against age-related diseases.
It is no surprise, then, that Barzilai will feature prominently at the Longevity Leaders World Congress next week, the definitive global meeting with the mission of extending human lifespan and healthspan and delivering healthy aging.
My take on this: Regenerative medicine is going from strength to strength, with over 50 regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designations in the US to date. Barzilai is a member of a Keynote Panel at the Congress considering the question?Regenerative, Rejuvenate or Reprogram?, so we asked him to elucidate when we sat down with him recently.
Barzilai makes?the same point as James Peyer?– when we consider these longevity therapy avenues it’s a case of?and, not?or.
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“We have three scenarios,” Barzilai explains. “The first is the Dorian Gray scenario, who appeared to never age, but a hidden portrait revealed the truth. So for us, that equates to targeting aging so we can delay it. The second is the Wolverine scenario, or Fountain of Youth, where – to simplify – put an old person in a special rejuvenating bath, and they get out younger. This is the most difficult task that we have – we can improve health in older people, but we cannot make them young or live longer.
“The third scenario is Peter Pan, who, of course, did not age. The idea would be that when you’re 20 or 30, you would undergo treatment that would reprogram you – erase the aging and will allow you not to age.”
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