By Tom Addison, Policy Manager, The Physiological Society
As the UK Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge states, ‘If the UK is to be the most innovative country in the world, we need to be able to capture the value from our science, research and creativity and support innovation’. To this end, The Physiological Society works with The Royal Society of Biology and fellow learned societies on ‘Policy Lates’, a series of evening talks which approaches a theme from different perspectives of the STEM community.
The most recent event ‘Healthy Ageing – A lifespan perspective’ at the beginning of this year’s Biology Week was of particular interest given The Physiological Society’s focus on demonstrating the role of physiology in meeting the Government’s ‘Ageing Society’ Grand Challenge of ‘five healthier, more independent years by 2035 while closing the gap between the richest and poorest’.
Society representation on the panel was through Richard Siow, Director of Ageing Research at King’s (ARK) consortia and Co-Chair of The Society’s project on knowledge exchange and physiology. He was joined by David Llewellyn, professor of clinical epidemiology and digital health at the University of Exeter, Lauren Walker, a clinical lecturer in pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Liverpool and George MacGinnis, who leads the UKRI’s £98 million research programme as part of the Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge.
Richard, as Chair of the session, welcomed the speakers and noted the requirement of interdisciplinary working to disentangle the many interconnected and interdependent strands that relate to ageing well – not just physical health but also ensuring that people have the financial means and mental well-being to ensure they are able to take advantage of improved physical activity and nutrition.
The session began with a presentation from David Llewellyn on the opportunities afforded by artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives to identify previously hidden patterns in outcomes. His presentation spoke of the potential to use many more biomarkers and control to target personalised medicine and care and identify when someone is likely to be more at risk from age-related conditions.
This overarching presentation segued into Lauren Walker’s presentation on the problems associated with prescribing medication to older people both in terms of polypharmacy which disproportionately affects older people and heightened risk of drug toxicity in older age.
Finally, George MacGinnis from UKRI set out the importance of all areas of innovation, including biomedical research, focusing on the Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge mission in order to meet the target.
All three presentations combined with Richard’s opening remarks as Chair to highlight the integrated approach that will be required to meet the Government’s ‘Ageing Society’ mission. Underpinning all three presentations however, is the need to be able to understand how epidemiological data is supported by a mechanistic understanding of an individual’s physiology and how it responds under stress. It was also interesting to hear from the panellists about the extent to which they believed that functional decline of organs or whole systems in older age are inevitable or driven by age itself compared to diseases which become more frequent in older age as a result of long-term stresses on the body such as obesity and inactivity.
Understanding this will be crucial if we are to empower the current and future generations of older people to maximise their longevity and benefit as fully as possible from the innovations in modern medicine.
Please note that all views expressed on The Physiological Society’s blog reflect those of the author(s) and not of The Society.