Dynamic Multi-System Resilience in Human Aging/Conceptual models of human aging and resilience
November 12, 2018
11:00 am - 11:40 am
- Presenter
Peter M. Hoffmann (Wayne State Univ.)
- Abstract
Humans are “complex biological systems consisting of multiple levels of non-linearly interacting elements”. Our bodies have astonishing powers of self-repair, and in the absence of catastrophic stress or genetic defects, can maintain homeostasis for a long time. Humans are one of the most long-lived species on the planet. However, there seems to be a “natural limit” of human life span that has not changed substantially despite the advances of medicine. Self-repair and recovery from stresses “naturally” diminish with age. Eventually, tipping points push the system into increasingly less resilient states. Are there any purely conceptual models that can describe human aging, resilience and frailty, especially the slow-down of recovery and the emergence of tipping points? This talk will provide a high-level overview of some potentially useful models and how they relate to each other – focusing on models of entropic/informational breakdown and stochastic stress response. However, while such models can capture aspects of the problem, challenges remain to connect these mathematical models to the complex, multi-hierarchical, multi-timescale, feedback-controlled system of a human body.
- Presentation file(s)
- Download Presentation (Delete)
- Related files
