Slowing down aging and living a longer, healthier life: what is myth and what is reality? This will be the theme of the Milan Longevity Summit “Rewriting Time”, the international event that will take place in Milan from March 14 to 27, organized by BrainCircle Italia in collaboration with the SoLongevity Foundation and other important local organizations working in the field of longevity: from academia to companies, from socio-economic operators to decision-makers and institutions. The world’s leading experts in the science of aging will meet in a series of events to break down preconceptions and take stock of the latest developments in this field of research.
During the event, there will be discussions on how artificial intelligence will change our lives, the biomedical challenges that await us and the importance of promoting correct individual behaviors to improve quality of life. Also: politics and the role of institutions, how cities, products and services should change in response to new needs, and women’s longevity. The events are free (registration required): the full program can be found on the website www.milanlongevitysummit.org.
A social revolution
Humanity is aging. This is a fact, confirmed by data from the United Nations World Social Report 2023: by 2050 the number of people aged 65 or over will double, exceeding two billion individuals. And that is not all: forecasts say that a child born in 2021 will live on average almost 25 years longer than a person born in 1950. All this will inevitably have an impact on social organization, the pension system, work, the economy and urban planning. We cannot arrive unprepared.
“I started with the idea of presenting cutting-edge scientific research in the field of longevity,” says Viviana Kasam of BrainCircle, who conceived the Summit. “But I realized that it is only the tip of the iceberg. Because population aging inevitably entails a total change in social organization, the urban context, the world of work and pensions, and it is giving rise to what I call the ‘Longevity Rush’, similar to the gold rush at the beginning of the last century. The originality of our formula is that we address the topic in a 360-degree way. How will society change if we live to 120? Who will bear the costs of such a long-lived population? How will the world of work change? And that of pensions? We are witnessing a real revolution, not only as regards the length of life, but in the change it will produce in society. And I believe this has been talked about far too little. It is a fundamental issue that concerns everyone.”
BioClock SoLongevity
The program in brief
It begins on March 14 with the opening of “Forever Young: The Dorian Gray Syndrome”, an exhibition created by MEET Digital Culture Center, the international center for Digital Art and Culture. The exhibition, curated by Maria Grazia Mattei, Founder and President of MEET, and Clement Thibault, director of visual and digital arts at Le Cube Garges, will analyze the way in which today’s society implements innovative technological solutions to create real-time, constantly evolving representations of the self: a journey into the incessant search for an ideal, ever-young self-representation.
On March 21, at Palazzo Marino, the institutional opening of the proceedings will take place in the presence of Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who will present the “A Great Life” award to leading figures in Milanese science, industry and culture who, with their commitment and vision, continue to show that age is just a number. The award is dedicated to Rita Levi Montalcini, who lived to 103, pursuing her scientific and ethical commitment to the very end.
The scientific meetings will also begin on March 21. Opening the event will be Jamie Metzl, writer and expert in AI and biotechnology, author of the book “Hacking Darwin“, who will talk about how artificial intelligence and technology will transform our lives. The event is part of the Meet the Media Guru calendar, organized in collaboration with the Fondazione Giannino Bassetti. Also taking part on the day are IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele, which has launched a new strategic research project on aging, and Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS.
“We are witnessing a real revolution, not only as regards the length of life, but in the change it will produce in society. And I believe this has been talked about far too little. It is a fundamental issue that concerns us all” (Viviana Kasam).
Register and attend for free
The speakers on March 23, 24 and 25
On March 23, 24 and 25 the Summit will move to the Teatro Franco Parenti, and these will be the days of the “longevity stars”. Eagerly awaited are David Sinclair, professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, who has changed the understanding of the mechanisms of aging, and Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. But also Juan Carlos Izpisua-Belmonte, biochemist and developmental biologist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and Luigi Ferrucci, director of the US National Institute on Aging. Not to mention experts such as Laura Niedernhofer, Ana Maria Cuervo, Andrea Maier, Anna Erat, Claudio Franceschi, Antonella Santuccione Chadha, Marco Quarta and Roberto Bernabei.
March 25, in particular, is the day organized by the SoLongevity Foundation, dedicated to “The new frontiers opened up by the science of longevity: in cities,
at work, in precision and gender medicine”, with guests of the caliber of Nic Palmarini, Director of the UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), who will present the City of Longevity project; Steve Horvath, geneticist and biostatistician at UCLA, researcher at Altos Labs, pioneer of research on so-called biological clocks and co-founder of the Clock Foundation; and the architect Stefano Boeri. The event is divided into two sessions — morning and afternoon — with different focuses, each concluding with a debate. Alberto Beretta, Scientific Director of SoLongevity, immunologist and expert in longevity medicine, will draw the conclusions and explain how all this research can reach the public and have an immediate impact on health expectations.
Closing the day will be the round table dedicated to FemGevity, a SoLongevity project for reflecting in a 360-degree way on the topic of women’s longevity. Taking part in the discussion with the audience will be Guendalina Graffigna (Full Professor of Consumer and Health Psychology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Cremona and Director of the EngageMinds HUB Research Center – Consumer, Food & Health Engagement Research Center), Hellas Cena (Vice-Rector of the University of Pavia, physician specializing in Food Science, head of the Laboratory of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition of the University of Pavia and of the Clinical Nutrition Unit of IRCCS Maugeri), Francesca Baglio (neurologist at IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS in Milan) and Emanuela Notari (Longevity Strategist, partner at the Active Longevity Institute).
The detailed program follows:
Thanks to Edra SpA, media partner of the Milan Longevity Summit, for producing the video
