Department of Lab Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Corresponding author
Rozalyn M. Anderson
Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726, USA; GRECC, William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI 53705, USA; Corresponding author
Marten Scheffer
Department of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA; Corresponding author
Bernard Crespi
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
James DeGregori
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
Kelley Harris
Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Barbara Natterson Horowitz
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Morgan E. Levine
Department of Pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06524, USA
Maria A. Riolo
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
David S. Schneider
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Sabrina L. Spencer
Department of Biochemistry and BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80303, USA
Dario Riccardo Valenzano
Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany; CECAD, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Michael E. Hochberg
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA; ISEM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier, 34095 France; Corresponding author
Summary: Aging research is unparalleled in the breadth of disciplines it encompasses, from evolutionary studies examining the forces that shape aging to molecular studies uncovering the underlying mechanisms of age-related functional decline. Despite a common focus to advance our understanding of aging, these disciplines have proceeded along distinct paths with little cross-talk. We propose that the concept of resilience can bridge this gap. Resilience describes the ability of a system to respond to perturbations by returning to its original state. Although resilience has been applied in a few individual disciplines in aging research such as frailty and cognitive decline, it has not been explored as a unifying conceptual framework that is able to connect distinct research fields. We argue that because a resilience-based framework can cross broad physiological levels and time scales it can provide the missing links that connect these diverse disciplines. The resulting framework will facilitate predictive modeling and validation and influence targets and directions in research on the biology of aging.
