Undoing Aging

Jácint Tökölyi - Hydra Aging

Hydra are among the lucky few immortals, but not even all hydra manage to stay young indefinitely. We learn about regeneration, stem cells, aging, and cancer in these early life forms.

Jan Vijg - Aging by DNA damage accumulation

Somatic mutation theory is the dominant theory for why we decline. Jan describes the evidence and implications for therapies

Alex Wolf - The ageing vs cancer trade-off

Many believe that ageing and cancer are the same process, but several lines of evidence suggest that ageing and age-related diseases might have evolved to prevent cancer.

Josh Mitteldorf - Aging as an altruistic programme

Aging is clearly detrimental, but perhaps our sacrifice has an unexpected benefit to our species. Would life be sustainable without aging, or would we all be undergoing obligatory calorie restriction? Josh describes his demographic theory of why we age.

David Gems - The evolution of aging

I discuss the reasons why evolution causes animals to age and die despite reducing their evolutionary fitness. Professor Gems focusses on the idea that aging might be a program or programs that provide other advantages.