The two Israeli aging researchers who made it to the "Longevity Leaders" list
Nir Barzilai and Uri Alon were selected by TIME for the list of 12 groundbreaking researchers paving the way for a longer and healthier life. Barzilai is testing whether existing drugs can delay age-related diseases, and Alon found that genetics may account for about 50% of life expectancy.
How much of our life is predetermined by genes, and is it possible to delay aging instead of treating the diseases it brings with it? These are two of the questions currently occupying the forefront of longevity research, a field that has long since ceased to be on the fringes of medicine.
TIME magazine chose to shine a spotlight this year on 12 researchers who, it says, are beginning to show real results in the effort to extend life and improve its quality. Among the names are two Israelis: geneticist Prof. Nir Barzilai and systems researcher Prof. Uri Alon from the Weizmann Institute.
The two study aging from different directions: Barzilai is trying to see if it is possible to use existing drugs to delay the diseases that come with age, while Alon found that genetics may have a significant weight in determining life expectancy. Both have been interviewed by Globes in recent years about their findings.
How much do genes determine?
The work of geneticist Nir Barzilai, for which he earned a spot on the prestigious list and was interviewed in Globes in the past, helped promote a new approach to medicine. Instead of treating diseases separately, his research supported the idea that focusing on the biology of aging through drugs and lifestyle interventions could more broadly extend the "healthspan" — the years a person lives in good health.
For decades, Barzilai has studied "super-agers," as well as the biological and genetic factors that help them avoid diseases and delay aging. "People don't pass the age of 100 without some genetic explanation, so we are trying to understand the biology behind it," he told TIME magazine. "This knowledge will help us develop additional drugs." His studies have found, among other things, a link between longevity and variations in genes related to cholesterol and lipid metabolism. He is now leading the SuperAgers initiative, which seeks to recruit 10,000 people aged 95 and older and their family members to identify additional genes associated with slow aging and health in old age.
Barzilai is also promoting the possibility of using existing drugs as anti-aging treatments. He designed a trial to test whether metformin, a diabetes drug, can delay age-related diseases such as heart disease and cancer. The trial has not yet begun, but according to him, the same approach could be used to test GLP-1 drugs in preventing some age-related diseases.
Uri Alon also deals with the genetics of aging, but from a different direction. In January of this year, Alon and his colleagues presented a finding that genetics may play a much larger role in determining human life expectancy than previously estimated. Later that year, he spoke with us about a completely different study, which examines the link between menopause and aging.
Alon found that when deaths from accidents, infections, and other factors not directly related to aging are neutralized, genetics may explain about 50% of life expectancy, a significantly higher rate than the accepted estimates, which stood at 20%-30%.
For Alon, the implication is not only that genes are more important than we thought, but that there is a growing justification to look for the genes and proteins that dictate the rate of aging and to check if it will be possible to intervene in them in the future. "The biggest risk factor for cancer, dementia, metabolic diseases, and heart disease is aging," he told TIME. "If we can slow down the rate of aging, we are effectively doing preventive medicine for all age-related diseases in one fell swoop."
