Harvard Public Health

We often think of aging as an inevitable physical decline; as we get older our bodies break down and diseases begin to multiply. But what if that wasn't the case? What if we could change how we age and make our later years more healthy and fulfilling? That's the question we explore during our in-depth conversation with Will Mair, associate professor of genetics and complex diseases. Mair's Lab explores the basic biology of the aging process—trying to understand why we are more likely to get chronic diseases when we are old than when we are young. They seek to understand what is actually going wrong in our cells and tissues to increase the risk of age-related disease, and then work to find ways to reverse that. It's fascinating research that has the potential to change how we think about aging and age-related diseases.