Read a special journal issue on the future of geroscience

Designing multilevel approaches to address age-related health disparities

Several summit speakers stressed the need to increase understanding of the differences in health outcomes and lifespan among different populations, including racial and ethnic groups. Social, structural, and environmental factors can affect biology and behavior, resulting in disparities in rates and outcomes of aging.

Ensuring inclusion of diverse populations in all aspects of geroscience research

Along with the importance of training a diverse workforce and increasing inclusion of underrepresented groups in geroscience research, the summit spotlit the value of studying unique populations such as:

• Centenarians, who often have greater lifespans despite having similar physical activity levels and dietary habits to the general population.
• Indigenous populations in native, nonindustrialized environments, who are often affected differently by age-related disease and dysfunction than more frequently studied industrialized nations’ populations.

Exploring geroscience interventions for chronic disease patients and survivors

Although certain disease-specific interventions in humans can extend lifespan, survivors of cancer, HIV, and intensive care units still have elevated risks of age-related physical and cognitive decline. Geroscience offers potential benefits, such as combining senolytic (drugs that clear out senescent cells ) and chemotherapeutic treatments.

Further developing research models to understand and treat multimorbidity

Despite progress in our understanding of aging mechanisms and treatments for specific diseases, the prevalence of multimorbidity — having two or more chronic medical conditions — is on the rise. Multimorbidity is challenging to study in humans, requiring the development of more innovative animal models to find and validate cross-species mechanisms and biomarkers.

Identifying and implementing the use of aging-related health outcome measures

Identifying physiological measures that correlate with both aging and health could be used to develop new interventions to optimize care of older adults. Summit speakers explored some promising measures, including assessments of frailty and mobility, that can better predict disability and mortality.

Identifying and validating predictive biomarkers of aging

Geroscience would benefit from a validated toolbox of aging-related biomarkers that are scalable and relatively easy to collect. Promising avenues include epigenetic clocks, gene expression, and proteomic data, in parallel with measures of other hallmarks of aging, such as mitochondrial function and cellular senescence. Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence can play a big role in this effort.

Providing clear communication and training in geroscience

Geroscience provides an opportunity to make health care less siloed, and its perspectives should be integrated more widely into medical training and disease treatment. There is a need for developing shared terminology with clear and realistic messaging about the goals, knowledge gaps, and advances in the field. This includes a consistent definition of the term geroscience and educational materials for clinicians, researchers, medical and graduate students, and the public.