Committees

Committee to hear evidence on potential treatments to combat ageing

25 October 2019

On Tuesday 29 October the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will question academic experts to inform its inquiry into how science and technology can enable healthier living in old age.

Purpose of Session

In the first session the Committee will ask what advances are being made in medical treatments that target age-related diseases and the ageing process, in order to tackle the consequences of ageing as a whole. 

Witnesses

Tuesday 29 October in Committee Room 1, Palace of Westminster

At 10:25am

  • Professor Sir Michael Ferguson, Regius Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, Wellcome Trust Board of Governors
  • Professor Dame Linda Partridge, Managing Director, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, and Institute of Healthy Ageing, UCL
  • Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, Professor of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool
  • Professor Miles Witham, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University

At 11:25

  • Professor Arne Akbar, Professor of Immunology, UCL; and President, British Society for Immunology 
  • Professor Lynne Cox, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford 
  • Professor Jesus Gil, Professor of Cell Proliferation, Imperial College London 

Possible questions

On the advancement of medical treatments:

  • Should ageing be treated as a disease/condition in and of itself?
  • In what timeframes may treatments that tackle the ageing process be ready for use in the NHS? 
  • If treatments that target the whole ageing process (such as senolytics) prove to be promising, how and to whom would they be administered? 

On the effect of ageing on the immune system, and whether there are adequate funding opportunities for researchers studying the ageing system as whole:

  • What is the state of the evidence underlying senolytics drugs to target the processes of ageing?
  • What challenges face the development and trialling of treatments that target the ageing process?
  • How does an ageing immune system interact with other systems in the body?

Further Information