Do fundamental ageing processes exist and if so, how do they synchronize ageing changes and promote age-related diseases?

Establish whether fundamental ageing processes exist; if they do, characterize the mechanisms by which these processes synchronize organismal ageing changes and promote age-related diseases.

Background

This question addresses whether there are core, conserved processes of ageing that coordinate age-related changes across systems and drive pathology.

The authors included this among highly represented open problems in the literature, underscoring ongoing debate about the existence and coordinating role of universal ageing mechanisms.

References

Table 1: Examples of open problems with significant representation in the literature, categorised by topic. Do fundamental ageing processes exist and if so, how do they synchronize ageing changes and promote age-related diseases?

— Open problems in ageing science: A roadmap for biogerontology (2507.18602 - Talay et al., 24 Jul 2025) in Table 1, Results