By Coleen T. Murphy – Nature –
An optimistic take on the state of the longevity field provides hope for treating a range of ageing-related diseases — but feels at odds with the current shape of US research.
Super Agers, by clinician Eric Topol, has just been published, but it was almost surreal for me as a US scientist to read the book now, with its optimistic take on the state of the medical field. Despite their extreme promise, many of the lines of research that Topol describes have been subject to funding cuts by the Trump administration since the book was written.
For example, although Super Agers argues that we are on the verge of treating a host of diseases — from viral infections, such as influenza, HIV and rabies, to tuberculosis and several types of cancer — using the mRNA technology underlying COVID-19 vaccines, that sort of research is now on the chopping block in the United States.
