Gain a comprehensive introduction to geroscience and the physiology of human aging in this course on translational geroscience and precision gerontology. Explore historical and current trends in human longevity, the limits of life expectancy, and geroscience’s growing role as a public health priority. Learn to evaluate aging research responsibly, avoid exaggeration in scientific communication, and understand the health and economic value of geroscience. The course also examines ethical, social, and political considerations shaping the field, including public health frameworks, epistemic uncertainty in aging research, and the importance of equity and intersectionality in advancing the geroscience enterprise. Designed for learners interested in aging science, public health, and policy, this course provides essential foundations for understanding how geroscience can improve health across the lifespan and inform evidence-based decision-making.

Lecture 1: Scientific Foundations of Translational Geroscience and Precision Gerontology

By the end of this lecture, learners will be able to:

• Understand the historical view of human longevity

• Learn about recent trends in life expectancy and why it’s limited

• Discover that Geroscience has become a critically important public health initiative

Lecture 2: Scientific Foundations of Translational Geroscience and Precision Gerontology

By the end of this lecture, learners will be able to:

• Explain how to avoid embellishment and exaggeration in aging science

• Describe the rationale supporting Geroscience

• Interpret the health and economic value of Geroscience

Lecture 3: Ethics and the Geroscience Enterprise

By the end of this lecture, learners will be able to:

• Identify some of the ethical, social, and political challenges facing geroscience

• Define public health (…to help situate geroscience in the biomedical scientific enterprise)

• Explain the ethical significance of “epistemic uncertainty” for research on, and communication about, the biology of aging

• Comprehend situating egalitarian advocacy within the geroscience enterprise (introduction to the concept of “intersectionality”) 

Lecture 4: Ethics and the Geroscience Enterprise

By the end of this lecture, learners will be able to:

• Identify some of the ethical, social and political challenges facing geroscience

• Scientific enterprise)

• Explain the ethical significance of “epistemic uncertainty” for research on, and communication about, the biology of aging

• Situating egalitarian advocacy within the geroscience enterprise (introduction to the concept of “intersectionality”)