The 8th Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting (ARDD 2021)

Research Topic Highlights

This article collection addresses critical advancements and considerations in the rapidly evolving field of aging research, longevity interventions, and age-related disease prevention. The first article stresses the need for rigorous standards and validation in the development of machine learning models for high-dimensional biological data, emphasizing reproducibility to ensure reliable use in biomarker discovery, such as epigenetic clocks. The second article systematically reviews preclinical research targeting nutrient-sensing pathways—specifically the GSK3 pathway—for dementia interventions, revealing promising results in animal models but highlighting the lack of translational studies in humans. The third article explores how longevity-promoting pathways and transcription factors like mTOR, FOXO, NF-κB, and Nrf2 influence extracellular matrix remodeling, thereby impacting aging and age-related disease, and calls for deeper understanding of these interactions for effective therapeutics. The fourth article examines the translation of longevity interventions, including diet, exercise, and pharmacological agents, to public use, advocating for personalized tracking of biological aging and careful human-based assessment, as interventions’ effects can differ based on individual factors and may not always be beneficial. Collectively, these works underscore the necessity of scientific rigor, individualized approaches, and the importance of bridging experimental findings to practical, population-level applications in aging and healthspan research.

Content and Scope

This Research Topic collects work presented during the 8th Aging Research and Drug Discovery meeting (ARDD2021), held at the University of Copenhagen from August 30th to September 3rd, 2021. According to the United Nations, the proportion of people aged over 65 now outnumber children younger than 5. The enormous growth in the elderly population is posing a socioeconomic challenge to societies worldwide and necessitates new sweeping interventions for age-associated diseases. This year the conference features an incredibly exciting program with more than 70 global thought-leaders sharing their latest insights into aging and how we target aging process ensuring everyone lives a healthier and longer life.

For ARDD2021 - for the first time - all the conference speakers and participants have the opportunity to disseminate work presented during the meeting as peer-reviewed publications, through this Research Topic, hosted by Prof. Scheibye-Knudsen and Dr Sarah Mitchell. Manuscripts will be handled by editorial board members of the Frontiers in Aging - Interventions in Aging section.

Manuscript Types: Manuscripts must be formatted to match one of the following article types: Original Research, Systematic Reviews, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Perspective, Data Report, Brief Research Report, Opinion. For more information, please see the description of accepted Article Types for the Frontiers in Aging journal.