On August 9th, 2016, US News and World Reports featured AFAR board members, Steven Austad, PhD (Scientific Director); Nir Barzilai, MD (Deputy Scientific Director); James Kirkland, MD, PhD; as well as grantees Brian Kennedy (2003 AFAR Research Grant, 2008 Mid-Career Award); Thomas Perls, MD (1998 Beeson Scholar); Felipe Sierra, PhD (1993 AFAR Research Grant); Ana Maria Cuervo (2000 AFAR Research Grant); Valter Longo, PhD (1998 AFAR Research Grant) and Matt Kaeberlein, PhD (2006 AFAR Research Grant, 2007 BIG Award) in a comprehensive piece on the future of aging research.
The article provides an overarching summary of geoscience, the field which explores the relationship between aging and diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, and its scientific goal of extending the period of healthy life, known as healthspan. Walking through the evidence of compression of mortality seen in centenarians and research that has allowed scientists to hone in on several interrelated processes they suspect drive aging, the story also describes promising pipeline studies such as Dr. Kaeberlein’s Dog Aging Project and Dr. Longo’s research into caloric restriction.
Read the complete article here.
Studying diseases and the biological processes of aging together holds great promise not only for extending health as we age but also for better treating diseases common to aging. For more on Geroscience, explore content from the Disease Drivers of Aging: 2016 Advances in Geroscience Summit which AFAR co-sponsored here or read insights from Dr. Sierra and more in the special “The Longevity Dividend: Geroscience meets Geropolitics” issue of the Public Policy and Aging Report that AFAR co-produced here.
