By treating aging—not just age related disease—we can stay healthier longer.
The Geroscience hypothesis posits that since aging physiology plays a major role in many — if not all — chronic diseases, therapeutically addressing aging physiology directly will prevent the onset or mitigate the severity of multiple chronic diseases.
The value of the Geroscience approach lies in the well-established fact that older adults rarely suffer from a single disease. Rather, older adults often experience multi-morbidity. Since aging biology is the main driver of disease susceptibility, reduction in the rate of aging may delay the onset of multiple diseases at once.
The aims of Geroscience are to understand how aging processes enable diseases and to exploit that knowledge to slow the appearance and progression of age-related diseases and disabilities.
The main goal is to develop feasible, practical, and safe interventions to delay the appearance of multiple chronic diseases and conditions. Interventions that slow the aging processes would dramatically lower health care costs, perhaps more than the cure of any single disease, while significantly improving quality of life.
WATCH
Presentation by AFAR Board Member Richard G. A. Faragher, PhD, at the Master Investor event during UK Longevity Week in November 2021.
Geroscience research could be funded through a budget representing between 0.05 and 0.1% of the current spending in Medicare, or between $250-500M/year.
By extending years of health as we grow older, Geroscience can save trillions in healthcare costs.
Funding geroscience research is funding disease-specific research: a two-for-one approach.
Individuals living healthier for longer can contribute to the society longer.
The current approach to biomedical research is to study and treat diseases separately. Geroscience transforms the “one disease at a time model", most recently illustrated by the Cancer Moonshot and congressional funding for Alzheimer’s Disease. Counterintuitively, this approach has played a role in the current increase in multimorbidity and decrease in health among the elderly.
Research on aging biology is not as robustly developed as research on specific diseases. In addition to more funding, a detailed plan akin to the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) needs to be developed for Geroscience. This will require consultation with multiple constituents.
Create a funding consortium to support basic and applied academic research in geroscience, especially for early innovators entering the field.
Create a biotech incubator to provide small companies with seed money as well as professional, scientific, and entrepreneurial advice.
Fund innovative clinical trials such as TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) whose disruptive, innovative nature may seem too risky to traditional or federal funders.
Create a Geroscience-focused foundation that would leverage initial investments to produce sufficient patents and sustain long-term activities.
Special thanks to Felipe Sierra, PhD (1993 AFAR Research Grant recipient and Former Director of the NIA’s Division of Aging Biology) for these insights on Geroscience.
AFAR Report:
Aging and The Promise of Geroscience
2014 Cell Metabolism:
Geroscience: linking aging to chronic disease
Journal of Gerontology:
Moving Geroscience into Uncharted Waters
JAMA Network:
Aging, Cell Senescence, and Chronic Disease
JAMA Network:
Aging as a Biological Target for Prevention and Therapy
JAMA Network:
From Lifespan to Healthspan
Public Policy & Aging Report:
The Longevity Dividend: Geroscience Meets Geropolitics
Public Policy & Aging Report:
Is Aging Still a Disease? Perspectives from Geroscience
Geroscience Brochure, created for the Intl Perspectives on Geroscience Meetings
AFAR co-sponsored the 2016 Geroscience Summit, Disease Drivers of Aging.
AFAR co-sponsored and helped organize a series of meetings, "International Perspectives on Geroscience", in 2019 to encourage global collaboration. Meetings were held in China, Australia, Israel, Spain, Singapore, as well as the US.
