The Interdisciplinary Research Center on Geroscience

     Age-related disease is arguably the single greatest challenge for biomedicine in the 21st Century. Aging is the most important risk factor for human disease in developed countries and consequently creates an enormous social and economic impact. Our ability to tackle age-related disease is undermined by ourlack of understanding of the principles and mechanisms of aging. Aging is a tough, complex biomedical problem that is unlikely toyield to traditional investigative techniques. The Buck Institute is focused on studying the interface of normal aging and aging diseases in an interdisciplinary fashion.

     The Interdisciplinary Research Center on Geroscience was founded in 2007 as one of nine centers established as part of a trans-NIH Roadmap initiative designed to "lower organizational barriers that impede research and enable scientists to conduct research across disciplines, creating solutions to biomedical problems that have not been solved using traditional, disciplinary approaches." We consider that the relationship between aging and age-related disease an important problem that can be tackled through an interdisciplinary approach.