The Government’s Life Sciences Vision, released 6 July by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), sets out the life science sector’s ambitions. The document describes a focus on the UK’s most significant health challenges, including cancer, obesity, dementia and conditions related to ageing.
One of the seven areas set out in the Life Sciences Vision is "to understand the pathways associated with multisystem ageing" and in particular, harnessing that understanding in order to develop new diagnostics, therapeutics and devices interventions for age-related diseases.
The document is shared at the same time as the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) celebrates a record achievement for a published research paper that has been cited over 1700 times to date, with almost 150,000 copies downloaded since 2020.
The research, ‘Sarcopenia: revised European Consensus on definition and diagnosis’ was published in the Journal Age and Ageing, and written by a team of ageing researchers, including Professor Avan Sayer, Director of the NIHR Newcastle BRC. It is an excellent example of how the Newcastle BRC is working to understand the biological processes behind ageing, including the effect this has on our overall health, strength, and wellbeing in later life.
Reflecting on the priority of ageing in the Life Sciences Vision, Professor Sayer added:
“We have seen already from Age and Ageing’s report that research into ageing is of high priority for our peers in academia and healthcare. It is very encouraging that the Government are recognising ageing as a priority for investment and industry too.
The support we receive from the National Institute for Health Research is key to us continuing with our work in this area, and many of the priorities set out in their recent Best Research for Best Health: The Next Chapter publication map closely to our vision. We look forward to a continued collaboration with our regional and national partners to make this vision a reality”.
At the NIHR Newcastle BRC, we work with a range of key partners to fulfil our vision. Our collaborations are across health and social care, academia, industry, the government and charity sector, and most importantly, with the patients and members of the public that will benefit from our research.
Information about the publication and Impact Factor, adapted with thanks from Age and Ageing and Oxford University Press.