Falling Birth Rates? Impact of falling fertility

Impact on demographics of falling birth rate in EU, America, Canada, Japan, India, China, Asia, Africa. Falling fertility with increasing age of first conception. Child birth and child care. Older mothers and biological risks. Health care and obstetrics. IVF and infertility treatments. Ageing mothers and career pressures, baby career breaks. Pensions and social impact of older population. Future families and child rearing. Children of older parents. Psychological, physical, mental and emotional pressures of parenthood. Gender inequality and gender discrimination at work. Why birth rates are falling. Impact on population. Video by keynote conference speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist and author of 12 books on global trends including Futurewise and Building a Better Business. Birth rates, falling, fertility, women, female, trends, demographic, population, growth, decline, rates, treatment, families, gender, careers, children, babies, conception, child, asia, America, Europe, africa
Birth rates, falling, fertility, women, female, trends, demographic, population, growth, decline, rates, treatment, families, gender, careers, children, babies, conception, child, asia, America, Europe, Africa

Staying Young - anti ageing research

Science of ageing. How to stop getting old. Medical research into physiology of ageing. How cells get old. Tissue regeneration of heart, muscle, retina, spine, brain and other organs. Repair of tissue damage. Organ regeneration. Cure for blood pressure? New facelift therapy? Humpback whales, Rockfish Project and slow ageing in turtles and parrots. Human impact of anti-aging therapy. Social impact of living longer. Impact on longevity forecasts for life insurance and pensions risk. Cure for deafness and cure for macular degeneration. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon.

Joint replacement for rheumatoid and osteoarthritis

Growing need with older population. Largest market in US. New treatments and methods. Plastic and metal hips wear out, need revision, complications, infection, dislocation. Preserve neck of femur. Using adult stem cells to regrow joint surfaces. Grow new cartilage. Repair knee, hip, shoulder repairs. Chronic pain and disability, lack of mobility, improving mobility and function, range of movement. Medical research. Orthopaedics / orthopaedics and rheumatology future trends. Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker and futurist.

Repair of inner ear - deaf cure - using stem cells

For a while I have been working on the idea that we will one day be able to repair deafness – which is a universal problem for all those over the age of 75.  In fact you can find some kind of hearing loss in anyone over the age of 55 if you look hard enough.

 

The market for a cure for deafness is huge.

 

In Nature this month there is a report by Neil Segil and colleagues at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles – University of Southern California – in which they show they have made new hair cells from adult stem cells in the inner ear.

 

These cells have turned off production of a protein p27.  This offers a possible drug route to cure deafness, by blocking the p27 system and encouraging these cells to develop into new hair cells.

 

The work was done in culture but is still very exciting.

 

This is not the first time that scientists have explored ear cell regeneration.

 

It is becoming clear from many different studies that repair of the retina, inner ear, spinal cord, heart or brain will one day be relatively easy.

 

The challenge for the future of the pharmaceutical industry will be to be able to develop a drug which can encourage these cell-based transformations without removing cells in any way.  Watch this space – many different teams in biotech companies are actively developing solutions along these lines.