Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has announced an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under its Proactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program to accelerate research on biomarkers of aging. Led by Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology, the project aims to identify interventions that can extend human healthspan.
Although life expectancy has risen substantially, the number of years Americans live in good health has not kept pace. Chronic disease is common among older adults, increasing healthcare costs and reducing quality of life. The ARPA-H-funded research aims to shift medicine from treating disease after it appears to preventing decline before it begins.
Belsky said current treatment models focus largely on disease management rather than aging itself. “Our goal is to identify measurable biological signals that show whether an intervention is truly slowing the aging process, helping people remain healthy, independent, and maintain their quality of life as they grow older.” He is also affiliated with the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center.
The award supports the five-year PROSPR program, which seeks to transform geriatric medicine into a personalized, prevention-focused model. Its central FAST project will not launch new clinical trials. Instead, it will integrate data and biological samples from previously completed trials to identify novel biomarkers showing how drugs affect the biology of aging.
FAST is operated by Columbia University and combines data from drug trials targeting core mechanisms of aging. It currently includes four of the five priority drug classes identified by the research team: metformin, SGLT-2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and rapamycin. These drugs have extended lifespan in animal models and, although originally approved for specific diseases, have shown broad benefits across conditions in humans.
Preliminary findings suggest this approach has potential. For example, rapamycin may slow ovarian aging by about 20%, potentially extending fertility by approximately five years. Other trials have observed improvements in cardiovascular biomarkers and self-reported health, as well as a lower risk of diabetes progression.
Andrew Brack, ARPA-H program manager and creator of PROSPR, noted that clinical trials truly targeting aging require biomarkers that respond to health interventions over the short term, allowing trials to run for less time than the natural aging process itself. “The FAST project is critical to the overall success of PROSPR.”
Experts from five institutions are participating in the project, spanning the biology of aging, clinical trial design, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenetics, biostatistics, and computational biology. Belsky is the principal investigator, with Nir Barzilai, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Mahdi Moqri, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital serving as co-leads.
Barzilai said the project could change how aging is measured and treated. “In the future, older adults could visit a clinic, learn their biological age, receive targeted interventions, and see improvements in their markers within months. At the same time, biotechnology companies could determine earlier whether a drug works, accelerating the development of therapies that genuinely extend healthspan.”
All FAST data will be made available to qualified researchers through the Columbia Data Platform. Built on Google Cloud and operated by Redivis, the platform supports secure data sharing and collaborative research.
Belsky emphasized that FAST marks a shift in aging research from theory to practice. “We are no longer asking only whether a drug treats a single disease. We are addressing a larger question: can we measure, and ultimately extend, the number of years people live in good health? This could reshape medicine in an aging society.”
The project was initially incubated by the American Federation for Aging Research and is now being formally implemented with support from the ARPA-H PROSPR program.
News | Rapamycin May Slow Ovarian Aging by 20%
News | Rapamycin May Slow Ovarian Aging by 20%
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has announced an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under its Proactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program to accelerate research on biomarkers of aging. Led by Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology, the project aims to identify interventions that can extend human healthspan.
Although life expectancy has risen substantially, the number of years Americans live in good health has not kept pace. Chronic disease is common among older adults, increasing healthcare costs and reducing quality of life. The ARPA-H-funded research aims to shift medicine from treating disease after it appears to preventing decline before it begins.
Belsky said current treatment models focus largely on disease management rather than aging itself. “Our goal is to identify measurable biological signals that show whether an intervention is truly slowing the aging process, helping people remain healthy, independent, and maintain their quality of life as they grow older.” He is also affiliated with the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center.
The award supports the five-year PROSPR program, which seeks to transform geriatric medicine into a personalized, prevention-focused model. Its central FAST project will not launch new clinical trials. Instead, it will integrate data and biological samples from previously completed trials to identify novel biomarkers showing how drugs affect the biology of aging.
FAST is operated by Columbia University and combines data from drug trials targeting core mechanisms of aging. It currently includes four of the five priority drug classes identified by the research team: metformin, SGLT-2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and rapamycin. These drugs have extended lifespan in animal models and, although originally approved for specific diseases, have shown broad benefits across conditions in humans.
Preliminary findings suggest this approach has potential. For example, rapamycin may slow ovarian aging by about 20%, potentially extending fertility by approximately five years. Other trials have observed improvements in cardiovascular biomarkers and self-reported health, as well as a lower risk of diabetes progression.
Andrew Brack, ARPA-H program manager and creator of PROSPR, noted that clinical trials truly targeting aging require biomarkers that respond to health interventions over the short term, allowing trials to run for less time than the natural aging process itself. “The FAST project is critical to the overall success of PROSPR.”
Experts from five institutions are participating in the project, spanning the biology of aging, clinical trial design, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenetics, biostatistics, and computational biology. Belsky is the principal investigator, with Nir Barzilai, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Mahdi Moqri, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital serving as co-leads.
Barzilai said the project could change how aging is measured and treated. “In the future, older adults could visit a clinic, learn their biological age, receive targeted interventions, and see improvements in their markers within months. At the same time, biotechnology companies could determine earlier whether a drug works, accelerating the development of therapies that genuinely extend healthspan.”
All FAST data will be made available to qualified researchers through the Columbia Data Platform. Built on Google Cloud and operated by Redivis, the platform supports secure data sharing and collaborative research.
Belsky emphasized that FAST marks a shift in aging research from theory to practice. “We are no longer asking only whether a drug treats a single disease. We are addressing a larger question: can we measure, and ultimately extend, the number of years people live in good health? This could reshape medicine in an aging society.”
The project was initially incubated by the American Federation for Aging Research and is now being formally implemented with support from the ARPA-H PROSPR program.
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