Healthy Aging > Research

Research in Aging

The Center for Healthy Aging commenced its activities in January, 2009. As a result of this, Copenhagen has gained a new research center that focuses on aging research for the advance of better health and reduced frailty. The research center involves several inter-related disciplines and is anchored at the Faculty of Health Sciences. The research at the Center encompasses five research programs with a wealth of inter-disciplinary activities.

The figure below (Fig. 1) conceptualizes multiple interacting influences on human ageing. Four levels of influence are visualized as concentric circles: molecules and cells, organisms and individuals, society and culture, and dissemination/innovation.

Five research programs

Research at the new center is focused on five specific research themes, each of which contributes to new knowledge on how more people can live healthy lives and enjoy a robust old-age.

1a. Molecular and cellular research: Molecular Aging
1b. Molecular and cellular research: Neurobiology
2.   Molecular and cellular research: Skeletal Muscle Metabolism
3.   Body and Life
4.   Society and Culture
5.   Health Promotion and Innovation

The research programs span a broad spectrum, ranging from molecular and cellular-level research, through to individual and societal research. Beyond these five core programmes, the aim is also to conduct research across these disciplines. In doing so, the knowledge and competencies from different research areas will be combined to deliver the most thorough and up-to-date knowledge about the biomedical, social, and psychological causes of healthy aging; this knowledge base will be the foundation for the establishment of new preventative and therapeutic measures.