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. 2020 Oct:191:111316.
doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2020.111316. Epub 2020 Jul 18.

Lack of consensus on an aging biology paradigm? A global survey reveals an agreement to disagree, and the need for an interdisciplinary framework

Alan A Cohen  1 , Brian K Kennedy  2 , Ulrich Anglas  3 , Anne M Bronikowski  4 , Joris Deelen  5 , Frédérik Dufour  6 , Gerardo Ferbeyre  7 , Luigi Ferrucci  8 , Claudio Franceschi  9 , Daniela Frasca  10 , Bertrand Friguet  11 , Pierrette Gaudreau  12 , Vadim N Gladyshev  13 , Efstathios S Gonos  14 , Vera Gorbunova  15 , Philipp Gut  16 , Mikhail Ivanchenko  17 , Véronique Legault  18 , Jean-François Lemaître  19 , Thomas Liontis  20 , Guang-Hui Liu  21 , Mingxin Liu  22 , Andrea B Maier  23 , Otávio T Nóbrega  24 , Marcel G M Olde Rikkert  25 , Graham Pawelec  26 , Sylvie Rheault  27 , Alistair M Senior  28 , Andreas Simm  29 , Sonja Soo  30 , Annika Traa  31 , Svetlana Ukraintseva  32 , Quentin Vanhaelen  33 , Jeremy M Van Raamsdonk  34 , Jacek M Witkowski  35 , Anatoliy I Yashin  36 , Robert Ziman  37 , Tamàs Fülöp  38
Affiliations

Lack of consensus on an aging biology paradigm? A global survey reveals an agreement to disagree, and the need for an interdisciplinary framework

Alan A Cohen et al. Mech Ageing Dev. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

At a recent symposium on aging biology, a debate was held as to whether or not we know what biological aging is. Most of the participants were struck not only by the lack of consensus on this core question, but also on many basic tenets of the field. Accordingly, we undertook a systematic survey of our 71 participants on key questions that were raised during the debate and symposium, eliciting 37 responses. The results confirmed the impression from the symposium: there is marked disagreement on the most fundamental questions in the field, and little consensus on anything other than the heterogeneous nature of aging processes. Areas of major disagreement included what participants viewed as the essence of aging, when it begins, whether aging is programmed or not, whether we currently have a good understanding of aging mechanisms, whether aging is or will be quantifiable, whether aging will be treatable, and whether many non-aging species exist. These disagreements lay bare the urgent need for a more unified and cross-disciplinary paradigm in the biology of aging that will clarify both areas of agreement and disagreement, allowing research to proceed more efficiently. We suggest directions to encourage the emergence of such a paradigm.

Keywords: Aged; Aging; Aging interventions; Aging mechanisms; Aging paradigm; Biology of aging; Epidemiology of aging; Evolution of aging; Philosophy of science.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Profile of the survey respondents in terms of self-declared career stage (A) and expertise (B). For career stage, respondents chose one category. Two respondents (post-bachelor’s and family doctor) volunteered responses not in the list. For expertise, each respondent checked as many boxes as they felt applied.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Responses to Likert-scale questions on aging, ordered from top to bottom by decreasing consensus.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Correlation matrix representing Pearson correlation coefficients between the 16 Likert-scale questions. Correlations that were not significant at α=0.05 are left blank above the diagonal.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Responses to non-Likert questions. (A) Counts (absolute number) of answers to when aging starts. (B) Counts (absolute number) of respondents endorsing intervention classes thought likely to slow aging. (C) Counts (absolute number) of respondents endorsing intervention classes thought likely to slow aging (D) Relative contribution (%) of different classes of mechanisms to the aging process.
Fig. 5:
Fig. 5:
A conceptual model of how our understanding of aging biology will need to integrate perspectives from diverse disciplines. The precise definition of disciplines is somewhat arbitrary.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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