Open problems in ageing science: a roadmap for biogerontology
The field of ageing science has gone through remarkable progress in recent decades, yet many fundamental questions remain unanswered or unexplored. Here we present a curated list of 100 open problems in ageing and longevity science. These questions were collected through community engagement and further analysed using Natural Language Processing to assess their prevalence in the literature and to identify both well-established and emerging research gaps. The final list is categorised into different topics, including molecular and cellular mechanisms of ageing, comparative biology and the use of model organisms, biomarkers and the development of therapeutic interventions. Both long-standing questions and more recent and specific questions are featured. Our comprehensive compilation is available to the biogerontology community on our website ( www.longevityknowledge.app ). Overall, this work highlights current key research questions in ageing biology and offers a roadmap for fostering future progress in biogerontology.
Authors
- Robert W. Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8924-4447)
- Steve Horvath (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-3589)
- Emma C. Teeling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3309-1346)
- Maximilian Unfried (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8660-1576)
- Vera Gorbunova
- Andrea Britta Maier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7206-1724)
- Tomas Schmauck‐Medina
- David Gems (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6653-4676)
- Shahaf Peleg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2646-3807)
- Joris Deelen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4483-3701)
- Graham Pawelec (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3600-0163)
- Alaattin Kaya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6132-5197)
- Aleksey V. Belikov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4261-1024)
- Maria B. Marinova
- Patrick Hemming (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3354-398X)
- Caitlin J. Lewis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5521-2607)
- João Pedro de Magalhães (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6363-2465)
- Alexandra Stolzing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2975-5736)
- Morten Scheibye‐Knudsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6637-1280)
- Todd White
- Sara Hägg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2452-1500)
- Paul Ka Po To
- Andrei Seluanov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3400-538X)
- Collin Y. Ewald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1166-4171)
- Suresh I. S. Rattan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3478-1381)
- Angelo Talay
- Uri Alon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6903-9956)
- Jan Gruber
- Vardan Saroyan
- Hamid H. Alfatemi
Institutions
- University College Dublin (IE)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Loughborough University (GB)
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center (US)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Akershus University Hospital (NO)
- Health Sciences North (CA)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- University of Rochester Medical Center (US)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) (DE)
- Velocity Clinical Research (United States) (US)
- Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging Associated Diseases (DE)
- MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing (GB)
- Women's Health Initiative (US)
- National University Health System (SG)
- Genomics (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (DE)
- University College London (GB)
- University of Virginia (US)
- University of Rochester (US)
- Weizmann Institute of Science (IL)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- GeroScience
- Published
- 2025-11-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01964-4
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.77
Funders
- Directorate for Biological Sciences