Without any doubt, we live in an ageing society. In fact, aging is considered as one of the global issues for the United Nations (1). Dealing with the socio-economic consequences of this demographic change is a challenging task for our society (2).
As biomedical researchers we are convinced that an important contribution will be to find and develop treatments/interventions that are beneficial against aging-related diseases and aging-related health decline. The ultimate goal is not to prolong life-span, but to prolong the individual “health span”.
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This goal can only be achieved if we gain a deeper understanding of the ageing process on a cellular, molecular and organismal level (3). We therefore joined forces with other researchers from Cologne (from University, CECAD, and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing) to work on these questions with a systems biology approach. This research area is developed within the “Systems Biology of Ageing Cologne – Sybacol” consortium funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Reseach (BMBF). More information can be found on the consortiums web page at www.sybacol.org (4).
Teammembers