Perspectives

In this Perspective, the authors discuss experimental scenarios that breach the assumption of independence of all samples or participants in a study, specifically in aging research. They outline various strategies to improve the rigor and accuracy of the science with design and analysis solutions, while also considering real-world constraints.

This Perspective lays out the impetus and goals of the Cellular Senescence Network established to comprehensively identify and characterize senescent cells (SnCs) across tissues and lifespan, providing a publicly available SnC atlas.

In this Perspective, Jan Vijg and Brandon Milholland discuss that at high ages the probability of survival becomes vanishingly small, presenting a soft limit to human lifespan. They elaborate on the mechanistic basis of the observed limit to maximum human lifespan, and on the seemingly impossible future developments required to circumvent the current limit.

Carol Brayne and Terrie Moffit discuss the limitations of large-scale volunteer databanks (LSVD) for understanding aging and disease, call for further evaluation of their value and offer their thoughts on how to make the reporting of LSVD studies more transparent.

This Perspective describes the blueprint, challenges and potential solutions for the transformation of Alzheimer’s disease clinical care pathway with biomarker-guided and digitally facilitated detection and intervention at early disease stages.

The authors discuss how adopting a complex systems perspective is a crucial step in advancing our understanding of the aging process and requires fundamental alteration of the questions being asked and the methods used to answer them.

Whether and how cognitive training may be used to improve cognitive functions in older age remains incompletely explored, and existing studies have yielded inconsistent results. Here, the authors argue that emerging technologies can transform the field of cognitive enhancement by enabling personalized strategies for cognitive enhancement in older adults.

Suicide is an important problem among older adults and in particular older men. Here, the author discusses factors that impact suicide risk, including social determinants of health and cultural perception of old age, and proposes strategies for a multifaceted approach to suicide prevention.

Age-friendly cities initiatives aim to facilitate active and healthy aging. Focusing on the urban physical environment, the authors argue that longevity-ready cities that aim for better health and well-being for people of all ages from a life-course perspective can accomplish more than initiatives focused solely on old age.

The integrated stress response governs adaptive reprogramming of protein synthesis following external or internal signals. The authors discuss its role in aging and longevity, and highlight strategies to enhance health and resilience.

This Perspective discusses the socioeconomic concept of the longevity dividend, in which healthy and productive aging is achieved through a positive correlation between three dimensions: life expectancy, health and the economy.

In this Perspective, McMahon et al. examine the emerging roles and implications of post-transcriptional RNA modifications, or the epitranscriptome, in aging and age-related diseases, highlighting potential epitranscriptomic mechanisms and/or their dysfunction that may regulate the aging process.

Despite scarce evidence, ageism is often cited as a social factor contributing to elder mistreatment. This Perspective examines the limited research linking these issues and proposes a model and research agenda to further understand the relationship.

Linda Fried and colleagues argue that physical frailty reflects the dysregulation of a complex dynamical system underpinning health and resilience, and discuss the implications for new prevention and treatment approaches.

In this Perspective, Rando and Wyss-Coray discuss recent advances in the field of the biology of aging, focusing on new concepts related to the processes of cell and tissue aging and how they impact the healthspan and lifespan of an individual.