The recently-launched Supercentenarian Research Foundation has two main goals: to help improve quality of life for aging individuals, and to study and try to emulate the successful biological longevity of these people. In addition, the foundation will provide research funding designed to identify how supercentenarians avoid common diseases that kill most people at a younger age.
Stanley Primmer, the new president of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation, says that "those who are approaching the maximum lifespan can provide us with some important information about aging...why are they able to live longer than everybody else?" Dr. Primmer added that research funding will assist in answering these all-important questions about those who reach age 110 and beyond.
Experts estimate the number supercentenarians ranges from 300 to 400 globally, but only 77 are on record. Due to the fact that someone who is 110 has just a 50 percent chance of surviving until age 111, the actual number is constantly changing, making an actual global count very hard to obtain.
Both Platika and Primmer will be two of four founding board members for the Supercentenarian Research Foundation, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The foundation has recieved $200,000 in donations from private sources by the current leadership team to start out. Platika's hope is to raise at least two million dollars in order to create a global directory of people older than 110. After that, Platika hopes to raise more than $100 million for long-term longevity studies.
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