How do you turn a rust belt city into a world leader in biotechnology? Doros Platika, MD, has some ideas. Until December 1, 2006, Dr. Platika served as the president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, a public/private partnership that invests in and supports the growth of life sciences companies in the Pittsburgh region with products in bioinformatics, bionanotechnology, diagnostics, medical devices, medical robotics, therapeutics, and related tools and services. In this podcast, you’ll hear Dr. Platika review the accomplishments of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, and he’ll talk about his new job: helping to get funding to study the world’s oldest people.
Dr. Platika is the chairman of the Supercentenarian Research Foundation, a new organization designed to raise funding for studies of supercentenarians, or people who have lived more than 110 years. Dr. Platika wants to know: Why have the very aged survived as long as they have? Are they less susceptible to the common diseases that slow down the rest of us? Ultimately, Dr. Platika hopes the foundation will contribute to the discovery of products that help people fight degenerative and other conditions associated with aging and maintain their mobility and quality of life.
Hosts Leah Kauffman and John Murphy. Interview by Leah Kauffman.
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