A scientific team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Louis M. Kunkel and Thomas Perls at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard University together with other scientists from Children's Hospital in Boston, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Rutgers University reported the results of a genome-wide (genome-scan) study of 308 long-lived people, including 137 siblings in the journal of the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

The collaborative research work found that, human genes in chromosome 4 are "highly suggestive" of human longevity genes. This finding was published last September, in almost all the major newspapers in the world including Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Shimpo. Thomas Perls, MD, is one of the scientists who investigated this research work. He is a physician, researcher, and Asst. Professor of Harvard University. He is also the founder and director of New England Centenarian Study which focuses on geriatrics/gerontology research work on the oldest old people of New England Tri-State area.

Dr. Perls will be one of the five keynote speakers of the First Okinawa International Conference on Longevity

(OICL) which is scheduled to take place on November 12-13, 2001 at the former G-8 Summit Hall called Bankoku Shinryo Kan, Nago City, Okinawa, Japan. Dr. Bradley Willcox, physician/researcher and also from Harvard University and co-author of Okinawa Program, together with his twin brother, Dr. Craig Willcox and Dr. Makoto Suzuki will also present their research papers on Okinawan centenarian at the conference.

A total of 35 scientists, researchers, physicians, and educators from 10 different countries will participate in our symposium, round table discussion, lecture, scientific poster session and oral presentation. Dr. David Itokazu, the chairman of OICL will present his paper on "Okinawan longevity as a model of wellness in the world" .