Researchers studying ageing disagree on just about everything — including what ageing is, whether it is a disease and when it starts — according to a survey of about 100 scientists working in the field.

[Gladyshev] decided to survey participants at an international conference on ageing in Newry, Maine, in 2022, to better understand the views of those researching the topic. Respondents included early-career researchers, established scientists and industry professionals. The results are described in PNAS Nexus today.

Most researchers are clear in their own minds about what ageing is — but their perspectives don’t align with those of others, says Gladyshev. “People joke in the field that there are more theories than people.” Despite this, Gladyshev says he was surprised by the scale of the problem.

Particular interesting to me since I’ve met Dr. Gladyshev in-person and have discussed this very problem with him…

The DOI link is broken, so here is the actual cited paper (open access):

Gladyshev VA et al. Disagreement on foundational principles of biological aging. PNAS Nexus (2024). https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/12/pgae499/7913315