Jerusalem – Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in central Israel reported on Wednesday that Israel and Germany would establish a joint international centre to research the process of aging and extending healthy longevity.
Due to the constant increase in life expectancy, the German government decided to invest in a multi-disciplinary centre that would include leading researchers from Israel and Germany.
The researchers are to address scientific questions of facilitating the aging process and extending a healthy life span.
According to the BIU, the new centre would be the first of its kind in the world to focus on the biological mechanisms of aging and translate this knowledge into extending human health at old age and preventing aging-related diseases.
The Israeli and German researchers aim to understand the underlying mechanisms of aging, and how health can be maintained, and how aging-associated diseases can be effectively prevented.
In addition to research, the Israeli and German partners will hold conferences and seminars open to the public and engage in scientific and philosophical questions of longevity.
The new centre would be headed by Haim Cohen, professor at the Faculty of Life Sciences at BIU, and Bjorn Schumacher, professor and director of the Institute for Genome Stability in Aging and Disease at the Cluster of Excellence CECAD at the University of Cologne.
Cohen said “we aim to enable an experienced and mature population to realise its potential and enable it to become more productive towards itself and society.’’
Schumacher added that “the collaborative centre opens new perspectives for investigating the mechanisms of healthy aging.
“We are very enthusiastic about generating synergies between scientists in Germany and Israel to advance knowledge.’’
(Xinhua/NAN)