The main challenge of aging activism is a gap between aging researchers and people interested in longevity and radical lifespan extension. Lack of understanding of biogerontology as well as molecular biology often does not allow most of longevity activists to effectively help the researchers, do longevity citizen science and differentiate real achievements in biogerontology from marketing mess.
This course is for everybody! From scientists outside of biogerontology - to ordinary people who just want to live longer or to become immortal. In the course you will play with interactive protein visualizations and genome editors, you will analyze and reason out of real aging research data. We will provide optional lectures for those of you who do not have any biological or computational background. We will invite famous aging researchers and to become guest speakers and share breaking new discoveries directly from their labs.
This course will allow you to understand the ins and outs of longevity research and advocacy. So it will help you to contribute to the advancements that lead to radical lifespan extension and rejuvenations in variety of forms: from just doing promotion, programming, design and advocacy up to choosing the path of an aging researcher or investor.
We need funding to partially compensate our own expenses and time spent on the course, as we will have to:
buy wearable microphone for better sound as many people complaint
buy new camera + tripod at least for Kiev. The intro video that you saw was recorded on camera of one of our friends and it will be better to have our own camera for the rest of the course as it is not convenient to ask others each time we shoot.
buy green screen to record "green-screened" (where lecturer's background is substituted with our images/video) lectures easier
compensate part of our time spent on the course, as all those course planning and video editing are extremely time consuming
Iryna Pishel, PhD, Laboratory of Pathophysiology and Immunology, D.F. Chebotarev State Institute of Gerontology NAMS of Ukraine
Dmitry Shitikov, PhD Candidate, Laboratory of Pathophysiology and Immunology, D.F. Chebotarev State Institute of Gerontology NAMS of Ukraine
Daniel Wuttke, PhD Candidate, Integrative Genomics of Aging Research Group, Department of Functional and Comparative Genomics, Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom; Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Ageing Research, University of Rostock, Germany
Ilia Stambler, PhD, Department of Science, Technology and Society, Bar Ilan University, Israel and International Longevity Alliance
Anton Kulaga, International Longevity Alliance, Denigma
Aging appears to be an extremely complex multifactorial process that is tightly regulated. There are dozens of theories about the mechanisms of the aging process, but no theory fully explains aging in its entirety. This course will focus on the study of the basic concepts of aging research and its consequences. The course covers the historical development of theories of aging, the primary molecular and cellular mechanisms that govern the aging process as well as the emergence of modern advances in the study on the age-related changes in the body including cutting-edge computational approaches. It allows you to master the basic knowledge regarding modern ideas about theories of non-programmed and programmed aging, age-related disorders on the level of individual cells and the entire organism, the molecular mechanisms of age-related dysfunction, the identification of genes responsible for aging, the impact of epigenetic changes on life expectancy, and the basic models considered to provide experimental approaches to the extension of the human lifespan. Be prepared to enter the most exciting scientific field of the 21st century which will change the life of all of us and enable us to live a longer and perhaps indefinitely long life in youth.
This course is one of a kind. Here you will get skills and expertise from three different interconnected domains, three dimensions of longevity research: biological, computational and social.
Course materials are designed to guide students on their own distinctive paths of discovery.
Together with watching video lectures you can answer quizzes, play with interactive simulations and make simple programming assignments on real aging research data. We will also invite famous aging researchers to become guest speakers and share ground-breaking new discoveries directly from their labs.
We want to make it interactive, so we will use forums and communities to get feedback and improve lectures, quizzes, simulations and other course materials
Introductory lecture. How and why we age?
Theories of aging
Role of reactive oxygen species in aging.
Processes of damage and repair of DNA and proteins during the aging process
Identification of aging genes
Models for the study of aging
The lifespan in animals of different species
The aging process at the cellular level
Violation of cell activation processes during aging
Epigenetic mechanisms of lifespan regulation
Basic approaches to lifespan extension
Mechanisms of influence of calorie-restricted diet on the lifespan
Experimental lifespan extension in transgenic animals
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Parabiosis
Longevity-promoting substances
Genetic engineering. Transfection
Historical development of research of aging and lifespan extension
Individual desirability of lifespan extension
Social desirability of lifespan extension
Implications for research, economics and public health policy
The role of advocacy and activism. How you can help?
Networks
Molecular Signatures
Biochemistry introduction (shorthand notations, bonds)
Amino acids and proteins
Basics of genetics: transcription, translation and replication
Preview on Epigenetics
Basics of Python (variables, loops, functions, classes)
Introduction to graph theory and network analysis
