"The ageing process is much more malleable than we used to think"
These last 30 years, the fall in mortality rates among the very old has been the principal driver behind spectacular gains in longevity. And yet, no demographic forecasts anticipated the trend. Thomas Kirkwood is a biologist and director of one of the largest centres in Europe for study and research into the ageing process. He explains that “our bodies are not programmed to die.” Consequently, there are good reasons to hope for an even greater biological extension in longevity.
Pr. Thomas Kirkwood
Professor of medicine and biologist, Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health (IAH), University of Newcastle (UK)
All the video clips
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by Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of AXA
Longevity: the role of medical innovation
by Dr. Daniel Vasella, Chairman of Novartis
Longevity and emerging economies
by Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group, and Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of AXA
A global vision of longevity’s major challenges
by Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank Group, and Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of AXA
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by Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of AXA
"Very long lives are the likely destiny of children alive today"
by James Vaupel, Demographer, Founder and director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock (Germany)
"The most common length of life is clearly the output of the permanent interaction between our genome and the environment"
by Jean-Marie Robine, Demographer and epidemiologist, Head of Research at INSERM (National Health and Medical Research Institute), Paris and Montpellier (France)
"The countries with the longest life expectancy at 65 are not necessarily those that have the most healthy years"
by Carol Jagger, Professor of epidemiology of aging, Institute for Ageing and Health (IAH), University of Newcastle (UK)
"The supercentenarians are a very precious resource; we need to act quickly to understand what their secret is"
by Stephen Coles, Doctor of Medecine and Mathematics, Director of the Gerontology Research Group, Director of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles (USA)
"Prevention: never too late, never too early"
by Françoise Forette, Geriatrician, President of the International Longevity Centre (ILC) France, Co-president of the Alliance pour la Santé et l’Avenir (France)
"Technology can help older people stay at home longer"
by Pascal Brosset, Senior Vice President Innovation, Schneider Electric (France)
"The Internet is more and more often a social lifeline for seniors"
by Yseulis Costes, Director and founder of the company 1000mercis (France)
The economic impact of longevity: "situations show that societies adapt"
by Eric Chaney, Chief economist AXA Group, Head of Research, AXA Investment Managers (France)
"The challenge of financing dependency: the example of the United Kingdom"
by Raphaël Wittenberg, Economist at the UK's Department of Health, professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)
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