Post by tonystrak on Jan 16, 2018 5:59:06 GMT
Hi,
With the lean look of a long-distance runner, scientist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte whispers rather than talks as he draws on his childhood in the small southeastern Spanish town of Hellín to explain his life’s work. “I had a fairly happy childhood, but it was difficult,” he says. “My mother had no money and didn’t know how to read or write. She brought up three children by herself because my father wasn’t around and never had been. It was very hard on her. Perhaps watching her look after my sick grandparents, devoid of any kind of hope, made me ask questions such as, ‘What are we doing here? What’s it all about? What is the point of our lives?’ What I do now is try to understand how life unfolds; how 250 kinds of cells can be generated from one cell to make a human being. And how this can get out of control, leading to death or illness.”
One of the most distinguished scientists to come out of Spain, Izpisúa has spent 25 years working at the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in southern California, which has produced more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners. Leading a research team of 25 scientists, he is developing strategies that pave the way for stem cell therapies with a view to treating premature aging and other age-related diseases.
Fueled by billions of techno-dollars from Silicon Valley, it is one of the most exciting areas of scientific research today. Now, aging itself is being referred to by scientists as an illness. Izpisúa, for example, speaks about “curing” old age. In his lectures on the international conference circuit, he illustrates the process with three images: one of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a child, another of the actor-turned politician in his prime when he played Conan the Barbarianand a third as he is now – his massive buffed-up body a shadow of its former self. The point: no one escapes.
For More Details
Animated Device Explainer Video
With the lean look of a long-distance runner, scientist Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte whispers rather than talks as he draws on his childhood in the small southeastern Spanish town of Hellín to explain his life’s work. “I had a fairly happy childhood, but it was difficult,” he says. “My mother had no money and didn’t know how to read or write. She brought up three children by herself because my father wasn’t around and never had been. It was very hard on her. Perhaps watching her look after my sick grandparents, devoid of any kind of hope, made me ask questions such as, ‘What are we doing here? What’s it all about? What is the point of our lives?’ What I do now is try to understand how life unfolds; how 250 kinds of cells can be generated from one cell to make a human being. And how this can get out of control, leading to death or illness.”
One of the most distinguished scientists to come out of Spain, Izpisúa has spent 25 years working at the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in southern California, which has produced more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners. Leading a research team of 25 scientists, he is developing strategies that pave the way for stem cell therapies with a view to treating premature aging and other age-related diseases.
Fueled by billions of techno-dollars from Silicon Valley, it is one of the most exciting areas of scientific research today. Now, aging itself is being referred to by scientists as an illness. Izpisúa, for example, speaks about “curing” old age. In his lectures on the international conference circuit, he illustrates the process with three images: one of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a child, another of the actor-turned politician in his prime when he played Conan the Barbarianand a third as he is now – his massive buffed-up body a shadow of its former self. The point: no one escapes.
For More Details
Animated Device Explainer Video