Davide Liborio Vetrano, a researcher at the Aging Research Center (ARC) at Karolinska Institutet, has received a five-year Consolidator Grant worth 6 MSEK to investigate ageing, multimorbidity, and the biological processes associated with declining health in later life.

As life expectancy increases, more people experience multiple chronic conditions alongside declines in physical and cognitive function. Vetrano’s new project, “Chasing the Complex Architecture of Aging: Integrating Systems Biology, Epidemiology, and Intervention Simulation for Healthspan Extension (CHASE-H),” aims to understand why these health challenges develop together.

Rather than studying diseases individually, the research will examine how biological ageing, chronic diseases, and changes in physical and cognitive abilities interact over time.

The project will combine blood-based biomarkers with detailed health and functional data from long-term population studies in Sweden and the United States, including SNAC-Kungsholmen, SNAC-Nordanstig, and the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.

Using advanced statistical techniques and computer modelling, researchers will identify biological processes linked to unhealthy ageing and explore how potential lifestyle interventions or treatments could slow disease progression and help people maintain independence for longer.

The five-year funding will support research activities and salary costs, enabling the team to integrate epidemiology, biology, and computational modelling within a translational geroscience framework.

Source: https://news.ki.se/ki-consolidator-grant-enables-new-approach-to-multimorbidity-and-ageing