The Healthy Aging Initiative

About

The Healthy Aging Initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together world-leading experts in laboratory science and public health to spark innovation in the field of geroscience.

Our mission is to maximize the time spent disease free in old age for all.

We will achieve this goal by identifying the drivers of age-related disease and discover the therapeutics, policies, and interventions that can help people worldwide add more healthy years to their lives.

This will generate a substantial “longevity dividend,” both at the individual and the societal level, by reducing the risk of developing disabling diseases and extending healthy functioning.

This longevity dividend will lead to lower burden on the health care system, increased productivity and ability to remain in the workforce, and an improved and more durable sense of personal well-being.

Can we really slow aging?

Yes!

Disease is not an inevitable consequence of longevity—not in the animal world, and not in humans. Across the animal kingdom, some species maintain “youthful” cells, and excellent health, well into advanced chronological age. In human populations, exceptional agers also exist, living into their 90s without chronic disease.

In recent years, scientists have developed sophisticated molecular tools to measure biological age, as distinct from chronological age. Even more exciting, they have begun to identify interventions capable of halting, or even reversing, biological aging in animal models.

In addition, new research shows that social advantage and a range of health assets, such as safe neighborhoods, high-quality education, and having a sense of hope, can decelerate the rate at which people age.

The Healthy Aging Initiative aims to bring together insights from all these fields to meaningfully extend healthspans for hundreds of millions of people around the globe.