A UAE medical group is looking to cutting edge science to help people live longer than they do today — with a target of 101 years for all.
Pure Health wants to make the capital a centre of research on longevity, its chief executive Farhan Malik told an event at Louvre Abu Dhabi on Monday night.
“When we talk about longevity, we don't just mean increasing lifespan but making people healthier for longer,” he said.
The company's new focus is the science of “unlocking time”, which has emerged as a multibillion dollar industry in the past decade.
When we talk about longevity, we don't just mean increasing lifespan but making people healthier for longer
Farhan Malik,
chief executive, Pure Health
He said the goal would be to "extend life from an average of 76 years to 101".
The theory behind longevity biotechnology is that medicines, lifestyle changes, early intervention and coaching would allow a person to live far longer than they do today.
For an audience of senior government officials and medical figures, Mr Malik and Pure Health's chief operating officer Shaista Asif set out how a young Emirati today might live longer.
How someone could live to 101
“Ahmed” moves from childhood to adulthood with regular check-ups, and doctors use a “digital twin” to track how his body and mind could be optimised.
He has eye strain and sleeps poorly at times but is at a healthy weight, at 56kg by age 14, and has a positive mood in general.
Later in life his develops cancer, loses his hair and is involved in a major road accident that damages his heart — but he survives.
After the car crash, bioprinting is used to create a new heart for him.
At various stages, doctors use a dashboard to look at how he can be helped to recover and live longer. A “digital twin” is used to try out medication and test different scenarios for the best outcomes, rather than trial and error.
At one point, the dashboard's “smart life coach” detects that Ahmed is depressed and puts him in touch with a therapist.
Despite his health ordeals, Ahmed goes on to live to be a 101.
“That's our gold star — to make this country the land of opportunity where people from across the globe migrate into this beautiful setting to live longer, healthier, happier lives,” said Ms Asif.
“To give you the possibilities you dream of, to give you the memories you want to create, to give you the opportunities you want to explore.”
Where to start
If individual hospitals and doctors “work in isolation”, as is the case in many healthcare systems, such outcomes would not be possible, she said.
Mr Malik said a recent deal with the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, to create a centralised health platform where all data comes to one platform, was an example of where such a system begins.
“All the data lakes from Abu Dhabi will come to one platform so that all our businesses are working towards … one location for more accurate and more personalised medicine,” he said.
“Healthcare is a human right for everybody. It should not be for the one who has a monetary dollar value in their hand. Just like education should be democratised, housing or shelter democratised … health care has to be available for everybody.”
Pure Health became the UAE's largest medical group when Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, better known as Seha, which ran the capital's public hospitals, and the National Health Insurance Company, better known as Daman, merged with it.
The holding company and wealth fund ADQ is the largest shareholder. ADQ also merged its healthcare entities Rafed and Union71 with Pure Health last year.
Pure Health now owns 28 hospitals, 100 clinics and more than 160 laboratories across the UAE.
Over the past decade, billions of dollars have been invested in anti-ageing research, with Google's Calico, American entity the National Institute on Ageing and Saudi Arabia's Hevolution some of the names in the industry.
Although wonder drugs such as Metformin, Aspirin, Rapamycin have all been touted as bringing about longer lives, the sector remains in its infancy.
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MATCH INFO
Newcastle United 1 (Carroll 82')
Leicester City 2 (Maddison 55', Tielemans 72')
Man of the match James Maddison (Leicester)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Results
Female 49kg: Mayssa Bastos (BRA) bt Thamires Aquino (BRA); points 0-0 (advantage points points 1-0).
Female 55kg: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Amal Amjahid (BEL); points 4-2.
Female 62kg: Beatriz Mesquita (BRA) v Ffion Davies (GBR); 10-2.
Female 70kg: Thamara Silva (BRA) bt Alessandra Moss (AUS); submission.
Female 90kg: Gabreili Passanha (BRA) bt Claire-France Thevenon (FRA); submission.
Male 56kg: Hiago George (BRA) bt Carlos Alberto da Silva (BRA); 2-2 (2-0)
Male 62kg: Gabriel de Sousa (BRA) bt Joao Miyao (BRA); 2-2 (2-1)
Male 69kg: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Isaac Doederlein (USA); 2-2 (2-2) Ref decision.
Male 77kg: Tommy Langarkar (NOR) by Oliver Lovell (GBR); submission.
Male 85kg: Rudson Mateus Teles (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE); 2-2 (1-1) Ref decision.
Male 94kg: Kaynan Duarte (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL); submission.
Male 110kg: Joao Rocha (BRA) bt Yahia Mansoor Al Hammadi (UAE); submission.
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
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