Afundación is offering a series of dialogues on longevity and aging in Santiago
. In just one century, life expectancy has more than doubled. And this life expectancy is steadily increasing. Spain is among the countries in the world with the longest population, and Galicia, in particular, is in first place, being the community with the largest number of centenarians. In fact, it is close to joining the five blue zones of the world, zones of exceptional longevity, among which are Okinawa in Japan or Sardinia in Italy. This is the context from which the cycle “Dialogues on Longevity and Aging” begins, proposed by the ABANCA Social Work Foundation in collaboration with the Spanish Society of Cellular Aging (SENESCEL) and ColladoLab.
Maria Mittelbrunna CSIC researcher, will be speaking in this series next Wednesday, July 10, at 6:30 pm at the ABANCA Social Work Centre in Santiago de Compostela, in dialogue with Manuel Collado, also a CSIC researcher and member of the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela. The deterioration of the immune system is at the root of many diseases that affect people in old age. Maria Mittelbrunn has been a pioneer worldwide in recognising the contribution of the immune system to the aging process, and in her talk she will explain how this knowledge opens the door to the possibility of acting on it, strengthening it and giving it new energy that allows us to age healthier.
Cycle «Dialogues on Longevity and Aging» Its aim is to present, in an understandable and informative way to the general public, scientific data on the factors that influence longevity, advances in knowledge about the aging process and the paths open to aging with improved health. “We plan to reflect on all these aspects related to longevity and aging, and to do so with the help of the greatest experts in each field,” says Sabela Coucheiro, coordinator of the seniors section at Afundación. “Science has long despised the aging process, which it considered inexorable and in which, therefore, there was no point in investing effort; however, today we understand it better and have evidence that there are ways to mitigate its effects. “It’s not about getting miracle pills that make us immortal, but about improving the quality of life in old age,” emphasizes Manuel Collado, scientific coordinator of these dialogues.
In collaboration with ColladoLab and the Spanish Society of Cellular Aging SENESCEL, the series offers discussions aimed at all audiences, which are also broadcast live on Afundación Tv, to bring all this knowledge closer to society. The next meeting will take place in October with Miriam Gorospe, a Spanish researcher who heads the genetics laboratory at the Institute of Aging in the United States, an organization dedicated to research aimed at understanding aging and prolonging life. active life and health.
Maria Mittelbrunn
Doctor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, since 2017 he has been Director of the Laboratory of Immunometabolism and Inflammation of the Center for Molecular Biology (Madrid) and a researcher at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).
Among his seminal achievements is the demonstration that deterioration of immune system function with age not only compromises the response to infection, cancer, vaccination, or predisposes to autoimmunity, but also increases the risk of cardiovascular, metabolic, and cognitive decline, thereby weakening the immune system as a regulator of healthy aging. As of 2024, this visiting professor at the Columbia University Center for Translational Immunology and the Columbia University Center for Human Longevity in New York City.
Manuel Collado and SENESCEL
Manuel Collado is a molecular biologist and researcher at CSIC. He carried out his postdoctoral work in London and New York. In Spain, he worked at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) and the National Centre for Cancer Research (CNIO) in Madrid. In 2012, he joined the Santiago de Compostela Health Research Institute (IDIS), where he directs the ColladoLab laboratory of cellular senescence, cancer and aging.
SENESCEL is a scientific society created by Spanish researchers specializing in the field of cellular aging. Its objective is to promote scientific and technological research in this field, organize training activities and disseminate knowledge in this field, and promote cooperation between societies in this field at an international level.
Speaker images HERE.