From The Royal Institution.

John Tregoning tells his story of self-experimentation in pursuit of healthier organs and a longer life.

This lecture was recorded at the Ri on 24 February 2025.

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For generations, scientists have pondered the age old question, could humans live forever? To begin answering this question, we have to understand the age-limiting processes inside our bodies. Join immunologist John Tregoning as he takes us on a personal journey through the ways in which organs go wrong, starting with the most likely cause of death for someone his age – the heart.

John takes us through the normal workings of our organs, and how treatments have been changed for age-related diseases including stroke, dementia, diabetes, cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

In addition to the biology of our bodies, John will highlight how our current scientific understanding debunks anti-ageing ‘hacks’ and show the results of his slightly ill-advised self-experimentation in pursuit of healthier organs and a longer life.

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John Tregoning is currently Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London, where he has studied the immune responses to vaccination and respiratory infection for more than 20 years. His group is currently focusing on the immune response to RNA vaccination. John has written more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He is also the author of Live Forever? A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Disease and Ageing (due out January 2025). He previously published Infectious: Pathogens and how we fight them (OneWorld) which describes the history and science of infectious disease.

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