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SuperAger Initiative: unlocking the genetic potential of exceptional longevity

Nature Aging volume 3, pages 627–628 (2023)Cite this article

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Over the past century, human lifespan has seen marked extension, but healthspan — the proportion of lifespan spent in good health — has failed to keep up. Aging is recognized as the major risk factor for most diseases that afflict older adults, including cancer, diabetes mellitus type 2, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. However, individuals who live past the age of 95 (the so-called super-agers) are an apparent biological contradiction, given their extreme age. Many super-agers delay the onset of most age-associated diseases by twenty to thirty years as compared to the general population, and many remain disease-free for the duration of their lifespan1. This phenotype makes the super-agers an ideal population for the study of biological mechanisms that promote lifespan and healthspan.

Numerous research programs have been launched across the world to investigate the mechanisms that underpin healthy longevity. One common theme that emerges from these studies is that exceptional longevity is strongly influenced by genetics2. In fact, comparisons of lifestyle habits (such as history of tobacco use, exercise and diet) do not demonstrate significant differences between super-agers and individuals from the same birth cohort with average lifespans3. Indeed, exceptional longevity tends to cluster in families, and the offspring of super-agers also delay cardiovascular and other age-related diseases as compared to their contemporaries despite similar lifestyles and socioeconomic status4. These results highlight the contribution of genetics to healthy longevity and the need to unravel the genetic architecture of exceptional longevity.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by a grant from the American Federation for Aging Research (S.M.) and the Fickel Family Charitable Fund (K.A.W., O.V.d.W. and S.L.). The authors also report receiving the following grant funding from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (N.B.) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH): R01AG061155 (S.M.), R56AG044829 (S.M.), P30AG038072 (N.B.), U24AG065204 (K.A.W., O.V.d.W. and S.L.), U24AG056053 (K.A.W., O.V.d.W. and S.L.), U24AG058556 (K.A.W., O.V.d.W. and S.L.), UH3AG064704 (T.P.), U24OD023163 (P.J. and A.M.), 3OT2OD030043 (P.J.), 75N91020C00038 (P.J.), HHSN261201700003C (P.J.) and UL1TR003098 (A.R.S.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Aging Research, Department of Medicine, Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    Sofiya Milman & Nir Barzilai

  2. American Federation for Aging Research, New York, NY, USA

    Nir Barzilai, Kara A. Wilson, Odette Van der Willik & Stephanie Lederman

  3. Geriatrics Section, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Boston University and Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Thomas Perls

  4. Institute for Aging Research, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    Tina Gao & Aoife McGovern Leahy

  5. Vibrent Health, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Praduman Jain & Aisha Montgomery

  6. Regeneron Genetics Center, Tarrytown, NY, USA

    Alan R. Shuldiner

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  1. Sofiya Milman
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Contributions

S.M. and A.R.S. contributed to the conception, design, structure, drafting and revision of the article. N.B. contributed to the conception, structure and revision of the article. T.P. contributed to conception, drafting and revision of the article. K.A.W., O.V.d.W., S.L., T.G., A.M.L., P.J. and A.M. contributed to the conception and revision of the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sofiya Milman.

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Competing interests

A.R.S. is an employee of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and receives salary, stock and stock options as compensation. A.M. and P.J. are employees of Vibrent Health, Inc. and receive salary as compensation. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Milman, S., Barzilai, N., Wilson, K.A. et al. SuperAger Initiative: unlocking the genetic potential of exceptional longevity. Nat Aging 3, 627–628 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-023-00429-7

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