The National Institute of Aging Should Prioritize Human-Centered Research for 2026-2030

The United States has the largest aging population in its history, making our federally funded aging research more crucial than ever. The National Institute on Aging’s (NIA) Strategic Directions for Research planning document outlines scientific priorities for the Institute from 2026-2030. It also identifies actions the Institute can take to meet its goals of better understanding healthy human aging and treating age-related diseases. This initiative offers the opportunity to recenter the field to human-based research, capitalizing on its many advantages over research that uses other animal species.

Animal-based aging research has yet to lead to cures and therapies for age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s, in part because of intractable species differences between humans and the animals used to model the disease. Additionally, age-related diseases like arthritis and Alzheimer’s affect racial and ethnic populations differently, and past studies have failed to adequately represent minority populations. Human-centered research has the potential to more closely mimic the structure and function of the human brain and key characteristics of age-related diseases, and it can more accurately reflect human diversity.

New approach methods and other human-specific nonanimal approaches can help address the inconsistent predictiveness and translatability of animal-based aging research and are being increasingly prioritized across the National Institutes of Health. The agency has accepted recommendations made by the Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Catalyzing the Development and Use of Novel Alternatives Methods to Advance Biomedical Research, including tracking investment in nonanimal methods and prioritizing individual and combined methods to model human-relevant complexity.  Additionally, the agency established an exciting new program to begin implementing those recommendations. Human-centered research is the key to successful development of new therapies, prevention strategies, and other interventions to keep individuals and communities healthy as they age.

To promote human-centered aging research, the Physicians Committee recommended that NIA provide greater clarity and focus within its strategic goals, approaches, and mechanisms of evaluating investments and progress by highlighting human-specific, nonanimal methods in the aging research workforce, infrastructure, and technological advances. We also recommended that NIA include a significant role for new approach methods and other human-specific nonanimal approaches in goals related to the molecular, cellular, and biological mechanisms of aging.

The Physicians Committee will remain consistent in its engagement with NIA to ensure that human-centered research is prioritized in federally funded aging research, to replace ineffective animal methods and promote a healthy aging population.