Longevity Research: Cellular Ageing, Mitochondria and Biomarkers

Cellular Health and Ageing: The Hallmarks Framework

Cellular ageing is not one process but a set of interacting ones, formalised in the widely cited hallmarks of ageing framework. Understanding those hallmarks is the difference between reading longevity research critically and taking marketing claims at face value. This page explains each hallmark and how researchers measure it.

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Mitochondrial Function and Ageing: What the Research Shows

Mitochondria generate most cellular ATP and act as signalling hubs for stress and cell death. Mitochondrial capacity declines measurably with age in most tissues. Whether that decline causes ageing or reflects it remains contested, and the free-radical theory that once dominated the field has been substantially revised.

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Chronic Inflammation and Inflammaging: Research Overview

Inflammaging describes the low-grade, sterile, chronic inflammation that develops with age in the absence of infection. It is one of the most consistent predictors of mortality and functional decline in human cohort studies, and it links several other hallmarks of ageing together.

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Oxidative Stress: Beyond the Free Radical Theory

Oxidative stress is an imbalance between reactive oxygen species production and antioxidant defence. The simple version — free radicals cause ageing, antioxidants prevent it — did not survive contact with large clinical trials. The current view treats ROS as necessary signalling molecules whose dysregulation, not mere presence, causes harm.

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Ageing Biomarkers: Epigenetic Clocks and Functional Measures

Biological age estimation has moved from a research curiosity to a commercial industry. Epigenetic clocks are the best-known method, but functional measures like grip strength and VO2 max predict outcomes at least as well and cost far less. Individual-level measurement error is the field's central unresolved problem.

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