As research into longevity advances, scientists are finding new ways to test a once-speculative idea: that aging itself could become a target of medicine
Researchers are investigating whether, instead of doctors waiting for age-related diseases to appear, it could be possible to measure and influence the biological changes that happen as we age
The goal would be to intervene in the biological processes of aging before they contribute to disease, so that people would not just live longer, but also have more years of good health, known as health span
“Aging has biology. This biology drives diseases,” Nir Barzilai, director of the institute for aging research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City, told CNN
Instead of waiting for diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer to emerge and treating them separately, he argues that medicine could eventually target biological processes associated with aging that contribute to multiple conditions at once
Daniel Belsky, associate professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, said the hypothesis has not been tested in humans
“We don’t know yet whether we can really do this. But we do have an alignment of evidence to argue this is possible. And we now have a mobilization of re
In laboratory experiments, researchers have been able to manipulate the biology of aging in organisms ranging from roundworms to mice. Medicines, exercise, restricting calorie intake and other interventions can slow the accumulation of cellular changes associated with aging, Belsky said, extending the animals’ lives
“For humans, we do not yet have clinical trial evidence that intervention on this biology to extend health span is possible,” he added. “But — and this is where I think the excitement comes from — we are seeing the ground shift in advancing toward those human clinical trials.”
Scientists are looking beyond chronological age — the number of years someone has lived — to biological measures that reflect how their body is aging. Their task is not simply to measure biological aging, but to identify measurable changes in the body that may reveal how it is unfolding
One approach focuses on epigenetics — changes in the way genes are regulated without altering the underlying DNA sequence. Belsky said that by examining chemical tags known as methyl groups that are bonded to DNA, researchers “could track the passage of time in a human body.”
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Belsky’s work also involves analyzing multiple types of biological data. His Finding Aging Biomarkers by Searching Existing Trials (FAST) project is collecting what researchers call multi-omic data — combining different layers of information about the body — including proteins, metabolites and epigenetic marks on white blood cells. The aim is to identify biological indicators that respond to different interventions and could eventually help researchers measure how those interventions affect the biology of aging.
But Belsky said the critical connection between manipulating those biomarkers and extending the healthy lifespan has not yet been established
The difficulty is that the outcomes researchers want to measure can take decades to appear. Belsky said a trial designed to test whether an intervention taken at age 40 or 50 could prevent chronic disease might need to follow participants for two or three decades
Researchers are therefore trying to determine whether biomarkers of aging can eventually be used to predict longer-term health outcomes. If a biomarker can be shown to reliably predict whether an intervention will prevent disease or extend a healthy lifespan, it could serve as a “surrogate endpoint” in clinical trials — a measurable sign that a meaningful health outcome is likely to follow
As the science grows, longevity clinics are starting to appear, where patients are offered conventional medical assessments combined with a much wider range of tests intended to build a detailed picture of an individual’s health
In the US, Mayo Clinic launched its Healthy Longevity Clinic in 2023, and Singapore’s National University Health System has established a similar program, combining detailed assessment with personalized lifestyle or medical interventions
But as longevity clinics start to become more common, some scientists have cautioned that the field needs better regulation
In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Health has given longevity medicine a formal place within the healthcare system. In October 2024, it introduced a licensing framework for Healthy Longevity Medicine Centers, which it described as the first of its kind globally, creating a defined clinical category and setting the standards facilities must meet to operate within it
It licensed the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi as the world’s first state-designated specialized Healthy Longevity Medicine Center. Allan Boston, the institute’s chief operating officer, believes that understanding aging at a cellular level could be revolutionary. “All your cells are aging constantly. In the past, we thought that was just an inevitable stage of life. It’s not inevitable. There are things we can now start to do about that. That changes the whole concept of medicine.”
“The more we understand that cellular level activity, the more we can design therapies, drugs, other immunotherapies, technologies that can alter that pathway, slow it down and even potentially reverse it,” he added
But Belsky points out that when it comes to influencing the biology of aging, there are plenty of steps people can take that don’t require advanced medical innovations or visiting a specialist clinic
“The thing we know works is available in some form to most of us,” Belsky said, pointing to things like sleep, exercise, community and diet
“These are things where almost all of us can make progress,” he added. “We can add healthy years to our lifespan even without these new drugs.”
