New institute to study differences in biological age, real age
CHICAGO — Some people look and act younger than they are. Others seem to age prematurely, acquiring wrinkles, gray hair and an assortment of health problems earlier than their peers.
Now, a new institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will aim to find out why, and whether there’s a way to slow or reverse the aging process and the toll it can take on people’s health. The Potocsnak Longevity Institute, which is launching this month, will focus on research related to aging, and on treating patients suffering from its effects.
“Age is the most important risk factor for almost every disease we deal with, so if we can just slow down aging a little bit, we can impact the development of heart disease, cancer, lung disease,” said Dr. Douglas Vaughan, director of the new institute and chair of medicine at Northwestern. “It’s the one huge risk factor we don’t address in any type of way right now.”
The institute, funded with a donation from Chicago industrialist John Potocsnak and his family, plans to start accepting patients in coming months. Interested patients will be able to undergo a battery of tests designed to help assess their physiological, rather than chronological ages.
Doctors will be able to test things that aren’t often examined during routine doctors’ visits such as vascular function, heart rate variability, lung function, hearing, vision and metabolism.
Based on a person’s test results, doctors may then recommend certain interventions or medications, Vaughan said. The goal is to prolong the amount of time individuals can live in good health. Vaughan expects that health insurance plans may cover some of the services but not all. He said Northwestern plans to try to broadly serve patients by using some of its own resources and the endowment.
“Everybody ages at different rates, and it’s possible in 2021 and 2022 to accurately measure that biological age as opposed to your chronological age,” Vaughan said. “Most people are relatively close to where they’re supposed to be, but we do see people who are way off the curve in one direction or another, and we want to try to understand it.”
Patients may also have the opportunity to participate in aging-related clinical trials. Education and research will be key parts of the institute.
The institute will build off research Vaughan has done on a group of Amish people who immigrated from Switzerland to Indiana in the 1800s. Some members of that group have a unique genetic variant that seems to protect them from parts of aging.