On July 10, 2023, USA Today featured insights from AFAR Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD, and AFAR President James L. Kirkland, MD, PhD, on the progress of research and interventions poised to extend healthspan and prevent the onset of age-related diseases.
In “Want to live healthier longer? Scientists aim to improve life quality over quantity,” Dr. Barzilai and Dr. Kirkland discuss ongoing research into clinical trials of drugs such as rapamycin and metformin. According to Barzilai, “About a dozen already approved drugs ‒ including rapamycin, used to prevent organ rejection in transplantation, and the diabetes drug metformin ‒ might be repurposed to help expand healthy lifespan… But funding clinical trials and proving to the Food and Drug Administration they are safe and effective will be difficult.”
Dr. Barzilai and Dr. Kirkland also discuss lifestyle interventions such as intermittent fasting, as well as the vital need for support of this research. "Hopefully, if enough resources get put into this, we'll know one way or the other in a few years for the truly horrible things," says Kirkland. "When it comes to prevention for healthy 40-year-olds, you're talking about a long march before we get there."
Read the full article on USA Today here.
Dr. Barzilai is AFAR's Scientific Director, a 1994 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty recipient, a 1997 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Center Development Award in Aging scholar, a 2010 Irving S. Wright Award winner, Director at the Institute for Aging Research, and a distinguished Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Dr. Kirkland is AFAR's President, 2020 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction recipient, 2012 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient, and a Professor of Physiology and Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic.
