Ageing is characterized by a decline of many cellular and organismal functions. It is also tightly associated with a number of diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type-2 diabetes, several devastating neuropathies and many other illnesses. The more than 30-years rise in life expectancy (lifespan) at birth seen over the past hundred years mainly reflects improvements in child mortality as well as better medicine and health care, allowing most people in developed nations to reach an advanced age. This ageing of our society coincides with a dramatic increase in chronic illnesses, resulting in a healthspan (i.e. the life expectancy with good health) which is on average ten years shorter than the lifespan. This greatly affects the quality of life of the elderly and has also become a major economic burden.

For the first time in history, the last two decades have seen remarkable scientific breakthroughs in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of ageing. Ageing is no longer considered inevitable but is gradually being seen as a disease, potentially curable. In some cases, these exciting developments have shown spectacular improvements in small mammals not only of the healthspan, but also of the lifespan of up to 50%. First clinical trials on humans are paving the way for unprecedented therapeutic strategies to combat ageing. This is a paradigm shift from curing diagnosed age-related illnesses, as currently practiced by the downstream pharmaceutical industry, to longevity medicine, which deals with the upstream root causes of these diseases.

The pioneering advances in longevity (healthspan and lifespan) over the recent years have triggered major interest from public and private institutions. The announcement by Google in 2013 of its new venture Calico (California Life Company), with very substantial resources, began the first ever pursuit of longevity on an industrial scale. These developments serve as a battle flag and rallying cry for scientists, investors, entrepreneurs, top tier media, government officials and enthusiasts from among the public, all of which provided a rapid growth of resources available to the newly ignited industry.

Most of the top longevity players, whether companies, investors or science hubs are American entities with, as a result, very few longevity drugs in development outside the US. However, there is considerable expertise spread across Europe, with the potential to make a commensurate contribution to the existing global efforts in this new field. Given the imperative need to reduce the suffering caused by ageing, it is now a moral duty towards our seniors and an act of solidarity with the mainly American efforts to accelerate the worldwide discovery of new treatments by federating this scattered know-how. It is also of global strategic importance, given the enormous industrial benefits that will result from what is unanimously seen as the greatest industrial opportunity of the century.

CERL (Centre Européen de Recherche en Longévité) is a Swiss-born, audacious Eurocentric initiative to ensure that Europe too brings its contribution to this new field of longevity medicine. Adding life to our years is the core purpose of CERL, with the very pleasant side-effect of extending not only our healthspan but also our lifespan, adding years to our life. It has the potential of a disruptive impact on humanity.