A large multidisciplinary team of experts on ageing from Nine research institutes and eight private parties will study which factors and solutions promote healthy ageing and increase vitality. The team wants to be able to identify, slow down and reverse functional deterioration in the elderly to give them more years of good health. We will use new biomarkers to determine which elderly people are at greatest risk of more rapid ageing and vulnerability to medical treatment. They will also research how lifestyle changes can influence the combined health of the metabolism, the immune system, the gut flora and the muscular system.

Another research theme is ageing at the cellular level. Here the researchers will look in particular at senescent (‘rusty’) cells and how to identify and deal with these. By intervening at an early stage in these in part familiar mechanisms, the researchers hope to slow down or even reverse diseases such as heart failure, dementia and cancer. We will use high-throughput metabolomics to look for biomarkers in blood samples from elderly participants. With the aid of organs-on-chips, his group will research the effect of these biomarkers and whether the knowledge generated can help improve treatments.

• aging
• aging populations
• biomarker
• epidemiology

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