Toward a Systems Biology Framework for Understanding Aging and Health Span

Overview

Journal J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2009 Feb 19

PMID 19223604

Citations 15

Authors

Geoffrey B West

Aviv Bergman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

It is argued that aging research is at a stage where it could benefit greatly from a more intense engagement with the perspectives emphasized by systems biology and complexity science. A more integrated, systematic approach is needed if we are ever to have a fully developed, fundamental understanding of aging, longevity, and their relationship to health. A broader, deeper, more quantitative, and predictive conceptual framework can lead to theoretical approaches and realistic models that can be quantitatively confronted with data and, perhaps more importantly, stimulate novel questions and novel experiments. Integral to this is the search for underlying causal multilevel mechanisms and principles that can be quantified and developed into a serious predictive theoretical framework, providing a point of departure for framing a more integrated research agenda.

Citing Articles

A complex systems approach to aging biology.

Cohen A, Ferrucci L, Fulop T, Gravel D, Hao N, Kriete A Nat Aging. 2023; 2(7):580-591.

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An Emergent Integrated Aging Process Conserved Across Primates.

Wey T, Roberge E, Legault V, Kemnitz J, Ferrucci L, Cohen A J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2019; 74(11):1689-1698.

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An integrative modeling approach to the age-performance relationship in mammals at the cellular scale.

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Multiscale entropy: A tool for understanding the complexity of postural control.

Busa M, van Emmerik R J Sport Health Sci. 2018; 5(1):44-51.

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