Understand how Big Data can help us live a longer life

The dream of eternal life is something that has been with human beings since we discovered that we are mortal. Myths such as the "Fountain of Youth", found by the Spanish explorer Ponce de León, have always inspired writers, scientists and religious people to dream of living forever. Flirting with this utopia david agus e Craig Venter - done of the world's leading genetic engineering researchers – believe that our life expectancy is heading towards the triple digits with the help of the Big Data.

david agus Professor of Medicine and Genetic Engineering at University of Southern California. during the last Global Forum 2015 held in the city of San Francisco (CA), Angus said, in an interview for the magazine Fortune, who believes that with current technology, human beings have the potential to live peacefully until their “ninth or tenth decade".

The teacher's hypothesis was reinforced by the opinion of Craig Venter, co-founder and CEO of Human Longevity Inc., who stated that he has no doubt that current generations are capable of living for about a century. However, he pondered that the fact has proportions that need to be better evaluated. "We need to be sure the planet will be able to support more people living longer.“, he pondered.

One of the most important technologies for current medical science was the Big Data. With it, it was possible to make enormous advances in research on aging, for example. Venter remembers that when he was part of the team that sequenced the human genome 15 years ago, there was no comparative data to back up the findings. "Ten years ago, I would not have imagined that we would be able to predict someone's age from their genetic code. Now, in addition, we know that our genetic code is constantly changing“He said.

O Big Data allows all information collected in medical research to be stored, making data crossing simpler. To help with this task, Venter said his team hired the engineer who designed the algorithm. Google translator. "EWe are using software intelligence to try to understand and interpret all data“, he explained. This would make it possible, for example, generate a complete profile of an individual's genetic code.

Naturally, the Big Data will not simply add years to our lives by magic (or technology). The explanation of how all this data will extend our life expectancy it's a little more complicated. "We are making new discoveries about ourselves every six months“, says Angus. "These findings demonstrate that we are very complex. This means that we may never fully understand diseases, but we don't need to understand everything to control them.“, Finished.