Living Beyond 100

Have you ever wondered how long you will live, or what measures to take to ensure a long
and healthy life? Dr. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D. is recognized by Continental Who’s Who for dedicating his life to providing answers to many of life’s difficult questions about aging. Dr. Coles is the Co-Founder, Director, and Treasurer of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation and Gerontology Research Group.

Dr. Coles’ major professional endeavor, The Supercentenarian Research Foundation, has been formed as an International Non-Profit Organization to accept tax-deductible donations that will be utilized to fund research into the biology of aging by studying persons who have lived to be 110 years or older. Dr. Coles’s position at the Foundation allows him to showcase his authority as a researcher and spokesperson on Biogerontology. In addition, he co-founded the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group in 1990, which has met on a monthly basis at UCLA, USC, and CalTech for the last 19 years. He has also served as a Visiting Scientist for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Research and Development in Washington, D.C. As the current head of the Gerontology Research Group, Dr. Coles faces the challenging task of finding all supercentenarians that exist in the world today. For more than 12 years, with the help of over 40 correspondents throughout the world, the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) has maintained an Internet List of supercentenarians. The supercentenarian roster includes 82 Validated Living Supercentenarians, with 78 Women and 4 Men from 12 countries, ranging up to 115 years old.

Dr. Coles has documented and discovered that, most supercentenarians are women, and similarly, of the oldest people ever documented, the majority have been women. Dr. Coles has also established that supercentenarians are extraordinary not only for the years they live, but also in the way that they die. Dr. Coles arranges autopsies of the oldest people in the world as part of his work with the Supercentenarian Research Foundation. Dr. Coles argues, based on these autopsies, that supercentenarians aren’t dying from the characteristic diseases of old age, such as heart
disease, cancer, stroke, COPD, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s Disease. He concluded that what kills most of them is a condition, rarely seen among younger people, called senile cardiac TTR amyloidosis. In TTR amyloidosis, the protein amasses in and clogs blood vessels, forcing the heart to work harder and eventually fail. “The same thing that happens in the pipes of an old house happens in your blood vessels,” says Coles.

In addition to the autopsies and subsequent research efforts, Coles and his colleagues at Stanford University have obtained supercentenarian blood samples in order to extract DNA for further research on the aging process.

In addition, Dr. Coles is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and journal pieces, mostly in the subject areas of aging and supercentenarians. He holds two patents, Semiconductor Substrate for Imaging and Sequencing Informational Biological Molecules (DNA and RNA) at Atomic Resolut ion (No. 5,314,829 issued May 24, 1994); and an Active Pessary System to Detect Preterm Labor during Pregnancy with Professor Artal, M.D.

He is also one of four editors of the text, Future of Aging:` Pathway to Human Life Extension. This 866 page text makes the scientific case that a biological “bailout” could be on the way, and that human aging can be revolutionized in the future. The authors argue how an improved understanding of the biology of aging and selected technologies should enable the successful use of many different and complementary methods for modernizing aging, and why such interventions are appropriate based on our current historical, anthropological, philosophical, ethical, evolutionary, and biological context. The Future of
Aging encourages readers to think about aging differently and is a challenge to all of us to open our eyes to the future potential of biogerontology. In addition to his work with the Gerontology Research Group and his research endeavors, Dr. Coles is a Senior Member and Chairman of IEEE Systems, the Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on AI, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Artificial Intelligence; AGE, American Aging Association, Charter Member of the Editorial Board of Rejuvenation Research (formerly The Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine) [1998-2008], Physicians for Social Responsibility (Board of Directors PSR-LA 2009), Eta Kappa Nu, Electrical Engineering Honorary Society, Sigma Xi, Graduate Honorary Society in Science and Engineering, Fulbright Association, and served as Treasurer and Director of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation (SRF), from 2006-2011.

Dr. Coles received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, his Master’s in mathematics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in systems and communication sciences from Carnegie Mellon University, both located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After attending Stanford University Medical School, Dr. Coles completed his Clinical Internship in OB/GYN at the Jackson Memorial Hospital of the University of Miami Medical School. He then taught at UC Berkeley. Currently, he is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles; and was Assistant Researcher in the Department of Surgery, at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. For information about aging and the Gerontology Research Group, please visit www.grg.org. ICE

Supercentenarian Research Foundation The genesis of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation (SRF) began with a meeting at 6:30 AM on Sunday, October 31, 2004, during the Integrative Medical Therapeutics for Anti-Aging Conference in Las Vegas. 18 people assembled to discuss supercentenarians during this meeting that was organized by Stephen Coles and Elliot Bergman. Subsequent meetings were held in Miami, in Oakland during the AGE Conference in 2005, and during the SENS Conference at the University of Cambridge in 2005.

Members of the Scientific Advisory Board were recruited at these conferences that included some of the leading gerontologists in the world. The Organizing Committee (see below) facilitated the development of the SRF throughout this period. On May 2, 2006, the SRF was registered as a non-profit corporation in Pennsy l vania. A letter from the Internal Revenue Service sent on Jan. 10, 2008, recognized the SRF as a 501(c)(3) organization eligible to receive tax deductible donations. This status is retroactive from May 2, 2006. The SRF Public Charity Status is 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) for our EIN: 20-5167366. The SRF DLN: 17053165001047. The first annual meeting of the SRF was held on June 4, 2006, in Boston during the AGE Conference. For more information visit www.supercentenarianresearchfoundation.org

 

Writer: Continental Who’s Who^® Member Author: www.CWWICE.com