news
campusreview.com.au
Tough as old boots
Aussie men live longest, research reveals.
I
f you’re an Australian man, you’re better placed than any other
male group in the world to reach a ripe old age.
This is according to new research by ANU. Pulling data from
15 countries with high life expectancies across Europe, North
America and Asia, the study authors found that Aussie men live to
an average of 74.1 years.
The four runner-up groups were men in Nordic and European
countries, with Sweden a close second (74.0) followed by
Switzerland (73.7).
Brain in
a dish
How new technology might help
children with dementia.
C
hildhood dementia might sound
like a misnomer to some, but five
Australians every year are born with
an untreatable form of the disease.
Now, South Australian researchers will
use ‘brain in a dish’ technology to improve
the lives of those diagnosed with Sanfilippo
syndrome, and possibly others living with
more common neurological diseases.
The study also found that Australian women have the second-
highest life expectancy in the world (78.8 years); Swiss women live
an average 0.2 years longer.
"Popular belief has it that Japan and the Nordic countries are
doing really well in terms of health, wellbeing and longevity.
But Australia is right there," said the study’s lead researcher
Dr Colin Payne.
"The results have a lot to do with long term stability and the fact
Australia's had a high standard of living for a really, really long time.
Simple things like having enough to eat and not seeing a lot of
major conflict play a part."
The study introduced a new way of measuring life expectancy,
grouping individuals who were born in the same year into cohorts,
rather than assessing mortality rates of the population en masse.
In doing so, the researchers brought historical nuance and
situational factors to bear on the data, so that they could compare
groups who have “experienced similar conditions throughout their
life”. These conditions could be war, disease or any other kind of
socio-historical circumstance that has a non-negligible impact
on mortality.
"For example, any Australian man who's above age 74 we know
with 100 per cent certainty has outlived half of his cohort – he's an
above average survivor compared to his peers born in the same
year," Payne said. "And those figures are higher here than anywhere
else that we've measured life expectancy.
"On the other hand, any man who's died before age 74 is not
living up to their cohort's life expectancy."
The research was published in the journal Population Studies. ■
Associate Professor Kim Hemsley
and Dr Nicholas Smith. Photo:
Tom Huntley/News Corp Australia
The degenerative condition presents in
early childhood following an initial period
of normal development.
Over time, those living with the disease
experience declining brain function with
hyperactive behaviour, sleep disorder,
seizures and loss of mobility.
Life expectancy for children with
Sanfilippo is between 12 and 20 years.
The new research will explore whether
existing drugs can be rapidly repurposed to
help those living with the genetic condition.
To do so, the team will take skin cells from
patients, reverse engineer them into stem
cells and then develop them into neural
cells to create a representation of the
person’s brain.
Associate Professor Kim Hemsley from
SAHMRI’s Lifelong Health Theme said by
using a patient’s own cells, the researchers
can create a targeted, personalised
treatment plan.
“The other benefit is we can grow a
significant number of these ‘brains in
dishes’, meaning we can fast-track the
testing of a range of drugs that have already
been given safety approval for human use,”
Hemsley said.
Dr Nicholas Smith, from the University of
Adelaide and the Women’s and Children’s
Hospital, said those living with rare diseases
are historically underserved from a research
perspective, particularly in paediatrics.
SAHMRI, the Women’s and Children’s
Hospital and the University of Adelaide
partnered with the Sanfilippo Children’s
Foundation to secure $2.5 million for
the project.
The team secured $2 million from the
federal government’s Medical Research
Future Fund (MRFF), and the foundation will
front a further $500,000 of its own funds. ■
5