Piotr Pawlik's Travel Report

The generous Santander Travel Award allowed me to travel to Madrid, where I had pleasure to attend the International Longevity and Cryopreservation Summit.

Biogerontology – the subfield of biology focused on human ageing – and cryopreservation of tissues are still underrepresented on the European map of scientific events. This event, however, was a fantastic opportunity for both the researchers from those fields and from mainstream biomedical science to get together and talk about ageing – the most important medical condition. I call it “the most important”, because ageing is the only condition universal to all humans. Not even cancer or Alzheimer’s can claim this degree of universality. Ageing is also the most significant risk factor in plethora of debilitating diseases. Yet despite those facts – and perhaps due to inadequate funding – ageing remains a mystery. But perhaps there is another reason for this, a reason deeply rooted in our human psyche.

The scepticism of some medics, surgeons and researchers present on the conference pointed exactly in this direction: the fear of death and paralyzing inability to do anything about the ticking clock. People invest a lot of energy to overcome the fear of death. Once this issue is settled, once they have made peace with this unsettling idea of having only limited time on earth, they try hard to avoid confrontation with the issue. In consequence, the informed discussion about the nature of ageing, the malleability of the processes involved, socioeconomic gains and viability of anti-ageing treatments is hindered. During the conference, many prominent biogerontologists had to speak about those existential and psychological issues instead of the scientific advances in the field.

But are there any reasons to be sceptical and should we – as one of the speakers put it – “invest rather in wells in Africa” than in biogerontological research? The answer to the first question is yes: we should be sceptical, because this is what science is about. We should suspend our dreams and beliefs, and look on the facts. So far, the number of antiaging interventions is very small, and they are mostly related to dietary and lifestyle changes. Despite many attempts, the pharmacological industry was not able to create any drugs that could mimic the calorie restriction (which extends lifespan in mice by 50%) or exercising (which increase the healthspan). On the other hand, we had a lot of success in influencing ageing by genetic manipulations in model organisms, which clearly shows that ageing is malleable. Recent results in senescent cells clearance or parabiosis seem to corroborate this statement. But should we drop the research in the field altogether, and focus on digging wells in Africa? The answer is no, because ageing and debilitation caused by ageing is universal, the same for the rich and the poor, possibility even worse for the poor. Ageing is expensive and contrary to the widespread belief, it is a huge problem in developing countries as well. Maybe even more so than in the West, where a steady flow of immigration provides the much-needed workforce.

The other subject of the conference – the cryopreservation – drawn its own load of criticism. Cryopreservation has many potential uses: first, the ability to “freeze” (it’s not really freezing, but for the sake of simplicity this term is often used) organs and thaw them could allow us to create the organs banks. Presently the shortage of viable organs is the biggest challenge in transplantology. Second, cryopreserving the whole bodies could be “an ambulance to the future”, where incurable conditions could be cured. The representatives of Alcor, one of only few organisations which are currently offering the human cryopreservation, repeated many times that so far this is still a gamble: we can vitrify humans and store them in the liquid nitrogen, but we still do not know how to revive them. But according to recent studies, the brain structure is preserved, which cannot be said about those buried in the ground or incinerated in crematoria. Especially one recent study hints that the memories can by cryopreserved: researchers from Alcor Research Centre and University of Seville showed that a C. Elegans worm – a very popular and simple model organism – can be trained to remember certain facts about the availability of food, vitrified, de-vitrified, and still remember the training.

The conclusion of the summit seemed to be clear: we are moving forward, but still need much more money, public and governmental support, bright researchers and brave and open-minded medics and practitioners. I believe that in the following decades we will be able – if not remove the ageing altogether – then at least bring it under the medical control.