(ZENIT News / Rome, 06.02.2025).- Exactly two months before the first Vatican’s Longevity Summit, the International Institute of Neuro-Bioethics (IINBE) announced a scientific event that will be held on March 24, 2025 in the Auditorium of the Augustinianum Center of Congresses, on Paul VI Via in Rome. The meeting will bring together scientists, Nobel laureates and world leaders to address one of the crucial challenges of our time: to promote healthy, sustainable and integral aging.
The summit, organized in the framework of the Jubilee of Hope 2025, is an opportunity to explore the most advanced scientific discoveries and to reflect on the fundamental ethical values that guide research in this field. Among the participants are Professor Shyn’ya Yamanaka, Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine in 2012, whose discoveries on cellular reprogramming are opening innumerable applications, and Professor Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry in 2009, whose presence confers on the summit an exceptional scientific and cultural level.
The First Vatican Summit on Longevity was thought by Father Alberto Carrara, President of the International Institute of Neuro-Bioethics, and Viviana Kasam, President of the BrainCircleItalia,who died in October of 2024. The event is sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL), whose President will open the events and is in synergy with the Longevity Summit of Milan.
THE PROGRAM FORESEES THE FOLLOWING
Opening Greeting
- Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life
- Professor Giulio Maira, Founder and President of the Athena Foundation
Lectio Magistralis:
- Shyn’ya Yamanaka, introduced by Professor Juan Carlos Ipsizua Belmonte
- Venki Ramakrishnan, introduced by Professor Valerio Orlando
Round Table:
Moderated by Professor Nir Barzulai, the round table will address innovative and multi-disciplinary topics:
- Juan Carlos Ipsizua Belmonte: How the Yamanaka factors influence longevity perspectives
- Valerio Orlando: Readjust the time of human dignity
- Vittorio Sebastiano: The ovary and its secrets for longevity
- Valentina Bollati: Not only the genes: behaviour can also help to lead a healthy life
- Eileen Crimmins: The challenge between the hope of life and the duration of health
- Camillo Ricordi: What models for longevity?
Conclusion:
- Nir Barzilai: From Methuselah to us: What follows?
A Global Plan for Global Human Longevity
The Vatican’s Longevity Summit will not be an isolated event, but the first step of an ambitious global plan, led by the Vatican, in collaboration with international scientific and academic institutions. This project hopes to promote a model of longevity that is not limited to increase the years of life, but that enriches them in terms of quality, dignity and sustainability, integrating science, ethics and spirituality.
In consonance with shared ethical and anthropological principles, the International Institute of Neuro-Bioethics intends to develop an inter-disciplinary platform, to foment dialogue between scientists, philosophers, bioethicists and political leaders. Integral human longevity will be the central theme of future activities, with the objective of building a society that values all the stages of life and promotes inter-generational solidarity.
This summit represents not only a scientific reflection but also an appeal to consider aging as an ethical responsibility and an extraordinary opportunity of innovation for the common good.
