Global leaders in geroscience convene on aging biomarkers
Global leaders in geroscience convene this October as the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium hosts its fourth annual Biomarkers of Aging Conference on October 5–6, 2026, at Harvard Medical School’s Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, uniting academia, industry, and regulators to validate aging measures for upcoming longevity therapies.
Key Takeaways
- The fourth Biomarkers of Aging Conference runs October 5–6, 2026, at Harvard Medical School.
- Nearly 30 speakers span academia, biotech, funding agencies, and the FDA.
- Reliable aging biomarkers are needed as longevity therapies near the clinic.
- Satellite events on brain and reproductive aging follow on October 7.
When and where do global leaders in geroscience convene?
According to a Lifespan.io press release, the Biomarkers of Aging Consortium will host the meeting at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School on October 5 and 6, 2026.
The gathering brings together academic, clinical, industry, regulatory, and philanthropic leaders working to develop, validate, and apply biomarkers of aging. Readers following longevity and biohacking news will recognize the stakes: therapies that target aging itself are approaching the clinic, and progress depends on standardized ways to measure biological aging.
Who is speaking, and what will the program cover?
The 2026 program features nearly 30 speakers. Invited names include Steve Horvath (UCLA) and Dan Belsky (Columbia University) on epigenetic clocks; Uri Alon, Albert-László Barabási, and Michael Levin on quantitative and systems views of aging; and Vera Gorbunova, Thomas Rando, and Mike Snyder on mechanisms of aging and longevity.
Industry and translation sessions feature Morgan Levine and Martin Borch Jensen on AI and causal biology, plus Andrew Brack (ARPA-H), Cynthia Grossman (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), Jamie Justice (XPRIZE Healthspan), and Lynne Cox (Wellcome Leap) on funding, regulation, and endpoints.
Sessions span novel biomarker discovery, multi-omic and AI-based approaches, immune and cellular aging, and using biomarkers to evaluate longevity interventions. Selected poster presenters will give short talks, with prizes awarded by an expert jury.
Why do aging biomarkers matter right now?
Conference co-chair Jesse Poganik, co-director of the Consortium and an investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, stressed that speed is not the same as trust: before a biomarker guides a trial or treatment decision, the field must agree on validation and interpretation.
Co-chair Chiara Herzog of the University of Cambridge called 2026 the Consortium’s most diverse year yet, bringing molecular screening, population science, and longevity ethics together across academia, biotech, pharma, and policy. The Consortium spans more than 50 institutions and is fiscally sponsored by the Methuselah Foundation.
That measurement challenge sits alongside broader September 2026 longevity research, including work comparing how epigenetic aging biomarkers respond to interventions—underscoring why standardized clocks and assays remain central to clinical translation.
What satellite programs run alongside the conference?
The conference anchors a week of related programming at Harvard Medical School. Tickets include a full-day Replacement in Aging Session and access to the Gerophysics Session.
On October 7, the Consortium will co-host two satellite symposia in the Pechet Room: the Brain Aging Symposium (8:00 am–2:00 pm) and the Reproductive Aging Symposium (2:00 pm–6:30 pm). The conference is cochaired by Vadim Gladyshev, Chiara Herzog, Andrea Cipriano, Jesse Poganik, and Mahdi Moqri.