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PPARC News Archive
PPARC Recognized as a Duke Interdisciplinary Center
PPARC recently went through the procedures to gain full recognition as one of the Interdisciplinary Centers of Duke University. For information about Duke's Interdisciplinary Studies program, see: www.interdisciplinary.duke.edu/overview/. DuPRI is also now recognized as a part of Interdisciplinary Studies. [more]
Third International Evolutionary Demography of Aging Workshop Held 2006, 23-25 October
Researchers gathered at Duke University to discuss, "What determines quantitative differences in age trajectories?" and look at: Optimization vs. non-adaptive explanations, Environmental variability, Transfers, and Statistical Demographic Advances. Hosts were James W. Vaupel (PPARC) and Cliff Cunningham (CREDA), both Duke Population Research Institute Board members. [more]
DuPRI Colloquium to focus on Cumulative Index of Health Disorders
At the first DuPRI Colloquium of this 2006/07 academic year, three Duke University researchers, Kenneth C. Land, PhD; Alexander Kulminski, PhD; and Anatoli Yashin, PhD, will discuss "Studies of a Cumulative Index of Health Disorders as an indicator of Aging-associated Processes in the Elderly: Results from Analyses of the National Long Term Care Survey. The Colloquium will take place in the Sociology-Psychology Building, Room 329 on Thursday, September 14th from 2:30-4:00 pm. Light refreshments will be available.
NY Times covers Longevity Research
On August 31, 2006, two PPARC researchers were quoted in the front page NY Times article entitled, "Live Long? Die Young? Answer isn't Just in Genes" by science writer Gina Kolata. One quote from James W. Vaupel, Faculty Director of PPARC was this, "You really learn very little about your own life span from your parents' life spans..." and then he discusses life span. PPARC's Deputy Director, Kaare Christensen, was interviewed extensively in the article about twin study research and what has been learned.
Prevention Magazine covers PPARC findings!
See Prevention, June 2006, page 48. Much to our surprise, findings from a PPARC twin study project are presented by Prevention in a very interesting chart (but presented without giving any credit whatsoever to PPARC, to the key researchers involved, or to the NIA). The chart shows there are factors in life which can account for "twins" appearing to be different ages. Just over 1,800 "senior citizen" twins were photographed and a team of gerontology nurses then individually looked at the photographs to record the ages of the subjects. From that study, it can be said that certain factors may lead to a person looking younger - such as wealth, marriage, and children; and certain factors may lead to a person looking older - such as smoking, excessive sun exposure and disease, such as depression. Go to Age and Ageing for the research article giving a full account of the study. Click "more" to see the article summary as well as the full article. [more]
Genetics and Longevity
PPARC researchers were invited by Nature Reviews Genetics to write a review of the genetic determinants of longevity. The review, published this summer, is now available. [more]