GeNeYouS: Newsletter: Chairman
Intelligenes
Index - Welcome - Board report - Chairman's wise words - Horizon programme
Agenda - To know and to be known - Netherlands Genomics Initiative - BioPartner - GeNeYouS, the next generation
Chairman's wise words
GeNeYouS as a recipe for a successful old age (and career)
As we grow older, we first grow stronger and wiser. Until we reach a certain age, and then we become weaker and - at least some of us – 'less wise'. This is an alarming but interesting phenomenon.
However, there are some factors to increase your chance of a succesful old age. Interestingly, the same factors guarantee your successful career in the field of genomics.
First, the larger your network, the greater your chance of a successful old age. Do you know of any 100-year old with no friends (or any Nobel prize winner)? If you want to last longer, make friends and keep them.
Second, the better your education the smaller your chance of dementia. So make sure to go to as many courses as possible. Ask the friends in your network where to find them and which ones are most useful.
Of course you have got to have the right genes. It is not quite obvious which particular ones make you live longer, but certain people are working on that.
Add to all these the ingredient ‘activity’ and your old age, as well as your career are a success. Join GeNeYouS, make friends, educate yourself and get the best out of your career... and the rest of your life!
Simon Mooijaart, MD, is a PhD student on the IOP Project "the genetic determination of longevity and disease at old age" and works in the Leiden University Medical Center. He is chairman of the board of GeNeYouS.