Human health generally trends downward with age. Many of us know more than one older person—and very few young people—suffering from cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or some other chronic condition. Barring circumstances such as accidents, violence, infectious disease, and genetic disorders, most people lose their health and vitality via chronic disease in later life. They will also eventually display telltale signs of old age: muscle wasting, vision loss, impaired wound healing, and a general “slowness” of both mind and body, among other things.

We focus on healthspan optimization because we believe that expanding the number of years we spend free from chronic disease or disability is one of the 21st century’s most important projects.

In a world of overburdened healthcare and pension systems, the economic and social gains of postponing or even preventing signs of frailty and old age are clear. And the benefits to us as individuals are perhaps even clearer. Few of us wish to spend our final decades reliant on a bedpan or wheelchair, or asking our grandchildren the same questions over and over again in the depths of dementia. Spending a longer time in good health means we can experience more time doing what makes us fulfilled and happy.

The single greatest risk factor for almost all of the major causes of death, disability, and functional decline in developed countries is how old you are. Like cars, we accumulate damage with age. This damage and the changes to our biology that result from it create conditions that enable these diseases to happen.

Research has robustly demonstrated that we can modify this biology in and improve the health- and lifespans of laboratory animals, and we have already known for decades that changes to lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and smoking can dramatically improve our resistance to disease and decline.

Scientific interest in and understanding of the aging process has accelerated rapidly in the last decade. Aided by an ever-expanding suite of technological advances, researchers are zooming in on multiple biological processes—cellular senescence, inflammation, epigenetic modifications, and more—to understand how these might drive aging and age-related disease. In so doing, they aim to uncover new points of intervention and apply these learnings to helping people live more of their lives in better health.

We are both excited by the potential for progress and committed to separating the signal from the noise.

In making healthspan optimization our mission, we hope to rewrite the aging narrative, and pave the way for a new paradigm in medicine focused on prevention, healthy aging, and a dignified future for us all.

Three Core Facts

A discrete set of biological processes drives aging and age-related disease

These processes are malleable

Modifying these processes can delay or prevent age-related diseases and conditions.