A new crowdfunding platform is aiming to solve the ageing puzzle
In this TED interview, Dr. Oliver Medvedik, Vice President of LEAF, discusses aging research and future medicine.
Scientists still do not know what causes aging. Oliver Medvedik, a molecular biologist, believes that we need to find an answer.
Would you choose to live forever if given the choice? Most of us would answer \”yes\” if we didn’t have to age. Oliver Medvedik, a TED Fellow and molecular biologist, says that aging is \”a gradual loss of fitness over time in an organism.\” Scientists are investigating many theories to explain this decline in fitness. These include deterioration in the health of telomeres, changes in mitochondrial function, the inability of cells to clear damaged proteins and senescence in stem cells.
Aging is not considered a disease, even though it can cause a decline in fitness and health. The FDA defines a \”disease\” as something that affects a small segment of the population. Medvedik is the co-founder and professor of bioengineering of the Cooper Union, New York City, as well as the co-founder and director of Genspace a citizen science lab. Because aging isn’t considered a medical condition by the federal government, the funding for research into it is limited.
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