Ilia Stambler

Bar Ilan University | BIU · Department of Science, Technology and Society

Due to the aging of the global population and the derivative increase in aging-related non-communicable diseases and their economic burden, there is an urgent need to promote research on aging and aging-related diseases as a way to improve healthy and productive longevity for the elderly population. To accomplish this goal, we advocate the followin...

An analysis of possibilities of human life extension involves an extremely broad variety of questions regarding the opportunities, challenges and implications for the human society that such a prospect would raise. Still, despite the wide variety, the related questions may be categorized into several groups. The first group of questions may concern...

This work explores the history of life-extensionism in the 20th century. The term life-extensionism is meant to describe an ideological system professing that radical life extension (far beyond the present life expectancy) is desirable on ethical grounds and is possible to achieve through conscious scientific efforts. This work examines major lines...

This book considers the multidisciplinary aspects of longevity promotion, from the advocacy, historical, philosophical and scientific perspectives. The first part on longevity advocacy includes examples of pro-longevity campaigns, outreach materials, frequent debates and policy suggestions and frameworks that may assist in the promotion of research...

Human beings have always had a tremendous interest in longevity foods, the foods that may be most beneficial for healthy longevity. This interest is natural and may be deeply rooted in human thought and experience. The present historical-cultural analysis will survey some of the historical traditions, myths, legends, cognitive, social, cultural and...

The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are simple markers of systemic inflammatory responses. It has been previously suggested that they can predict COVID-19 severity. Age and frailty may also influence their values. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 severity versus age and frailty on NLR and PLR...

This work surveys some diagnostic applications of information theory based identification methods. It emphasizes the advantages of information-theoretical methodology over other identification methods, such as the heuristic methods of deep learning and neural networks. It exemplifies the utility of information-theoretical methodology with examples...

In their Comment in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Banerjee and colleagues proposed to exclude the code ‘Old age’ MG2A from the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases, ICD-11, claiming that equating old age to a disease could have the negative consequences of treating calendar age as a disease, raising concerns of ageism. Yet...

Introduction: Geriatric assessment as an integrative part of assessment is a composite of a large number of scales. Sometimes it is difficult to transfer all of them. The Norton Scale Score (NSS) assesses the degree of risk to develop bedsores. In previous studies, a correlation between Norton Scale and function was found. A correlation between No...

This encyclopedia brings together a comprehensive collection of work highlighting established research and emerging science in all relevant disciplines in gerontology and population aging. It covers the breadth of the field, gives readers access to all major sub-fields, and illustrates their interconnectedness with other disciplines. With more than...

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, it is important to remember the historical achievements of Ukrainian science, to honor the heroes of the science of the past and to draw inspiration from their achievements for the development of science of the future. In this regard, the history of medicine, as a special academic discipli...

The infusion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) potentially improves clinical symptoms, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We conducted a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled (29 patients/group) phase II clinical trial to validate previous findings and explore the potential mechanis...

The main aim of the current Research Topic was to contribute to establishing the methodological basis for developing, and regulatory adoption of, diagnostic criteria for aging and aging-related multimorbidity. The articles published in this research topic provided a broad and diverse exploration of clinical criteria for aging and old-age multimorbi...

An ever-increasing ageing population has elevated Alzheimer's disease to be one of the biggest challenges in modern medicine. Alzheimer's disease is highly complex, and we are still no closer to understanding the causes, let alone an effective treatment. The lack of good experimental models and lack of critical understanding has led to high failure...

Aim: Hip fractures are highly frequent and severe problem, increasing incidence and severity with aging and high disability and mortality rates. Hence, the ability to predict this condition can be of high value for preventive healthcare. The present work explores clinical biomarkers' application for hip fracture risk evaluation and prediction, usin...

We provide an algorithm for the construction and analysis of autocorrelation (information) functions of gene nucleotide sequences. As a measure of correlation between discrete random variables, we use normalized mutual information. The information functions are indicative of the degree of structuredness of gene sequences. We construct the informati...

Aim: This study examines interrelations between gains of Norton Scale Score (NSS) and functional outcome measured by Functional Independence Measurement (FIM) among older hip fracture patients. Design: Retrospective study. Methods: We examined 227 patients consecutively hospitalized in a geriatric postacute rehabilitation ward. The data were collec...

Is maintaining good health potentially compatible with a significant or radical life extension? Historically, these phenomena have often been seen as conflicting. Their potential principal incompatibility has often been derived from either health (functional capacity) or lifespan being understood as finite or limited values. The various concepts of...

The data on COVID-19 is clear on at least one point: Older adults are most vulnerable to hospitalization, disability and death following infection with the novel coronavirus. Therefore, therapeutically addressing degenerative aging processes as the main risk factors appears promising for tackling the present crisis and is expected to be relevant wh...

The interrelation of the processes of immunity and senescence now receives an unprecedented emphasis during the COVID-19 pandemic, which brings to the fore the critical need to combat immunosenescence and improve the immune function and resilience of older persons. Here we review the historical origins and the current state of the science of innate...

A coronavirus (HCoV-19) has caused the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China. Preventing and reversing the cytokine storm may be the key to save the patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to possess a comprehensive powerful immunomodulatory function. This study aims to investig...

Due to the aging of the global population and the derivative increase in major aging-related non-communicable diseases and their economic burden, there is an urgent international need to promote the research, development and application of and education on effective and safe therapeutic geroscience interventions. These interventions are designed to...

There is a growing consensus that researching and developing therapeutic interventions into degenerative aging processes is a necessary condition for improving the health and longevity of the rapidly aging global population Thus, the research and development of therapies against degenerative aging processes (anti-aging) and for prevention of major...

It can be confidently stated that, at the present time, the extension of healthy lifespan (or "healthspan") for the global population is one of the most urgent and vital societal goals, if not the most urgent and vital. In its scope and potential significance for the well-being of the global human community, this goal dwarfs virtually any other dev...

In view of the frequent presence of several aging-related diseases in geriatric patients, there is a need to develop analytical methodologies that would be able to perform diagnostic evaluation of several diseases at once by individual or combined evaluation parameters and select the most informative parameters or parameter combinations. So far the...

The concept of homeostasis, or maintaining a balanced and stable state of the organism, in its historical development, has been associated with vitality and longevity, whereas its absence or impairment has been connected with aging related ill-health and mortality.

Rules and regulations for the research, development, application, and distribution of therapies and medical technologies targeted against degenerative aging processes and intended to apply specifically for the aged patients, to ameliorate or prevent aging-related diseases, improve function in the aged, and extend their healthy life span.

Vetek (Seniority) – The Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life is an Israeli nonprofit association that sets as its central goals the protection of the rights of older persons and the extension of their healthy longevity and improvement of their quality of life. Recognizing the crucial role of medical scientific research for the achievement of...

The historical practice of using endocrine gland extracts, transplants, and stimulants, as well as synthetic hormone replacements to ameliorate degenerative aging processes and extend healthy lifespan.

Life-extensionism is the proposition of the possibility and desirability of a significant amelioration of the degenerative aging process and prolongation of healthy human life. This article surveys seminal trends and works in the history of life extensionism, from the ancient times to the present. The article considers ancient sources, where proto-...

We urge the WHO to include and emphasize specific tasks and goals to maintain and improve the health of the global aging population in its work program. Among others, these tasks and goals must include enhancing scientific research and technological development aimed to provide new effective and safe therapies to meet the pressing health needs of t...

The ethics of antiaging intervention can be defined as a set of moral desirability criteria, normative recommendations, principles and rules, for research, development and application of medical treatments aimed to ameliorate degenerative aging processes and extend healthy longevity. This article considers the ethics of the goal-setting of therapeu...

Elderly patients are commonly characterized by the presence of several chronic aging-related diseases at once, or old-age “multimorbidity,” with critical implications for diagnosis and therapy. However, at the present there is no agreed or formal method to diagnose or even define “multimorbidity.” There is also no formal quantitative method to eval...

Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) has been gaining an increasing recognition as a versatile therapeutic approach. This article reviews the application of hyperbaric oxygenation as a method for resuscitation and therapy of elderly patients with cerebral and cardio-respiratory dysfunction, in acute as compared to chronic impairments. The vital ro...

It is becoming increasingly clear that in order to accomplish healthy longevity for the population, there is an urgent need for the research and development of effective therapies against degenerative aging processes underlying major aging-related diseases, including heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, pulmonary obst...

The present work explores the application of information theoretical measures, such as entropy and normalized mutual information, for research of biomarkers of aging. The use of information theory affords unique methodological advantages for the study of aging processes, as it allows evaluating non-linear relations between biological parameters, pr...

This article reviews the application of information-theoretical analysis, employing measures of entropy and mutual information, for the study of aging and aging-related diseases. The research of aging and aging-related diseases is particularly suitable for the application of information theory methods, as aging processes and related diseases are mu...

The years 2015–2016 mark a double anniversary—the 170th anniversary of birth and the 100th anniversary of death—of one of the greatest Russian scientists, a person that may be considered a founding figure of modern immunology, aging, and longevity science—Elie Metchnikoff (May 15, 1845–July 15, 1916). At this time of rapid aging of the world popula...

The current research topic inquires: “Should we treat aging as a disease?” Yet, in this inquiry, the question “Can aging be considered a disease?” is secondary, while the more primary question really must be “Is aging treatable?” Paradoxically, the answer given to the second question largely determines the answer to the first. The perceived unchang...

We estimate the weight of various risk factors in heart disease, and the particular weight of age as a risk factor, individually and combined with other factors. To establish the weights we use the information theoretical measure of normalized mutual information that permits determining both individual and combined correlation of diagnostic paramet...

On November 1-2, 2014, there took place in Beijing, China, the first International Conference on Aging and Disease (ICAD 2014) of the International Society on Aging and Disease (ISOAD). The conference participants presented a wide and exciting front of work dedicated to amelioration of aging-related conditions, ranging from regenerative medicine th...

The heterogeneity of parameters is a ubiquitous biological phenomenon, with critical implications for biological systems functioning in normal and diseased states. We developed a method to estimate the level of objects set heterogeneity with reference to particular parameters and applied it to type II diabetes and heart disease, as examples of age-...

Despite the common apprehensions regarding the aging population, this work aims to argue, on both deontological and utilitarian moral grounds, that any increase in general life-expectancy will be beneficial for the Middle East, countering the common fears associated with this increase. A set of ethical arguments concerning increasing longevity is p...

The search for life-extending interventions has been often perceived as a purely academic pursuit, or as an unorthodox medical enterprise, with little or no practical outcome. Yet, in fact, these studies, explicitly aiming to prolong human life, often constituted a formidable, though hardly ever acknowledged, motivation for biomedical research and...

The beginning of the modern period in the pursuit of radical human enhancement and longevity can be traced to fin-de-siècle/early twentieth-century scientific and technological optimism and therapeutic activism. The works of several authors of the period – Fedorov, Stephens, Bogdanov, Nietzsche and Finot – reveal conflicting ideological and social...

We present a method for the comparative analysis of parameter groups according to their correlation to disease. The theoretical basis of the proposed method is Information Theory and Nonparametric Statistics. Normalized mutual information is used as the measure of correlation between parameters, and statistical conclusions are based on ranking. The...

Formal diagnostic modeling is an important line of modern biological and medical research. The construction of a formal diagnostic model consists of two stages: first, the estimation of correlation between model parameters and the disease under consideration; and second, the construction of a diagnostic decision rule using these correlation estimat...

The Michaelis-Menten constants (K(m) and V(max)) operated by linear programming, were employed for detection of breast cancer. The rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) in living peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), derived from healthy subjects and breast cancer (BC) patients, was assessed by measuring the fluorescence...

The Michaelis-Menten constants (K(m) and V(max)) operated by the Information Theory were employed for detection of breast cancer. The rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) in live peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), derived from healthy subjects and breast cancer (BC) patients, was assessed by measuring the fluorescence...

This paper explores two opposed paradigmatic approaches to heroic power: Thomas Carlyle's versus Leo Tolstoy's. In On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1840), Carlyle argues for its crucial importance, whereas in War and Peace (1869), Tolstoy denies its very possibility. Carlyle's heroic model attributes to the hero (the leader) a hig...

The present study shows the effects of proteinase 3 anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (PR3 ANCA) on polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) apoptotic processes in vitro. The results are part of a generalized morphological analysis of 3 identical experiments on the influence of different cultivating conditions on the apoptotic processes. As cont...