Geroscience is a research paradigm that connects the biology of aging and biology of age-related diseases. The biological processes of aging are the greatest risk factors for many chronic diseases and disabilities that affect us as we grow older. Geroscience seeks to understand how aging processes enable diseases and to use that knowledge to slow the appearance and progression of age-related diseases and disabilities.
Deeper dive
Geroscientists hypothesize that therapeutically addressing aging physiology directly will prevent the onset or mitigate the severity of multiple chronic diseases, according to the American Federation of Aging Research (AFAR).
Geroscience seeks to understand the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms that make aging a major risk factor and driver of common chronic conditions and diseases of older people. This approach leverages the well-established fact that older adults rarely suffer from a single disease; they 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 primary goal is to develop feasible, practical, and safe interventions to delay the onset 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.
Traditionally, biomedical research has focused primarily on specific diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and, more recently, Alzheimer’s and related dementias. But aging affects the onset and progression of all of these diseases and is a common risk factor for them. According to the National Institute on Aging, studying what happens during aging at the genetic, molecular, and cellular levels, investigators hope to discover the similarities and differences among these conditions as they relate to aging.