FASTER, PLEASE: Mainstream science embraces ending ageing with major Mayo Clinic-backed research strategy.

The mission to end ageing got a significant boost today with the publication of an extensive strategy to take ageing-targeted drugs to clinical trials.

The strategy, which is laid out over six manuscripts, was published by the Geroscience Network, an organisation funded by the US’ National Institutes of Health whose members include the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University and Harvard University.

The publication is highly significant, because it demonstrates that the notion of ageing as a treatable disease has moved from a fringe theory held only by a small percentage of researchers to a widely accepted notion being used as the basis for widespread research strategies.

“Recent research suggests that aging may actually be a modifiable risk factor,” explains Dr James Kirkland, director of the Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging and study lead author on two of the manuscripts.

“The goal of our network’s collaborative efforts is to accelerate the pace of discovery in developing interventions to delay, prevent or treat these conditions as a group, instead of one at a time.”

Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, et al., have been arguing for this over the past few decades. Good to see aging being treated as the disease that it is.