As global life expectancy continues to rise, the ageing population is growing rapidly. By 2030, individuals aged 60 and over will outnumber those under 10, and by 2050, there will be approximately 2.1 billion people over 60. While longer life offers more years of active societal contribution, it also brings increased health challenges, placing a strain on healthcare systems worldwide.

Addressing these challenges has become a global priority, with the goal of ensuring that longer lifespans are also healthier ones.

The Technion Healthy Ageing Institute (iTechAge) is at the forefront of this effort, working to bridge the gap between lifespan and healthspan. By leveraging the Technion’s expertise in technology, science, and partnerships with Israel’s healthcare system, the Institute is advancing cutting-edge multidisciplinary research and developing innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for older adults globally.

In this webinar, Prof. Shen-Orr will explore the wide range of ageing-related topics addressed by iTechAge, from molecular mechanisms to cognitive, environmental, and social factors, utilising human biomedical data to originate discoveries, solutions, and policies to impact society locally and globally.

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Prof. Shen-Orr is an Associate Prof. at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where he heads the Systems Immunology & Precision Medicine laboratory since 2012. His research laid the foundation of CytoReason, a company building a cell-centred machine learning model of the immune-system, which it applies to further drug development in collaboration with leading pharma companies.

His work, applying computational science and information technology to biology and medicine, could advance the diagnosis and treatment of immune-related disease.

Prof. Shen-Orr is also the director of the Zimin Institute for AI Solutions in Healthcare at the Technion, which develops technologies based on big data and machine learning to improve healthcare, and co-director of Tech.AI, the Technion’s AI umbrella organisation. Most recently, he became the founding director of iTechAge, the new Technion Institute for Healthy Ageing, and is co-chief science officer of the global nonprofit, the Human Immunome Project.

Prof. Shen-Orr develops novel analytics that he applies to study the drivers of immune variation, particularly in the context of aging and evolution, and to further precision medicine. By identifying diagnostic biomarkers that evaluate immune health, he has developed a metric that gauges one’s “immune age,” a more accurate measure of health than chronological age.

Prof. Shen-Orr holds a bachelor’s degree from the Technion and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Zoom link will be sent an hour before the event starts (5.30pm AEDT).

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About Technion:

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology is among the world’s top science and technology universities dedicated to growth of knowledge and the development of human capital and leadership. Technion Australia exists to facilitate and support the Technion in its vision to be a science and technology research university, among the world’s top ten, dedicated to the creation of knowledge and the development of human capital and leadership, for the advancement of the State of Israel and all humanity.