Defining "aging research" as a field can be an elusive task. "It's difficult to wrestle this down to specific disciplines because it is so broad," says Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. "I believe that the most important research is going to be done in areas where you never hear the word aging. A lot of science that adds to our understanding of aging goes by other names."

William A. Haseltine, chairman and CEO of Human Genome Sciences Inc. in Rockville, Md., comments, "We're now in the beginning stages of a major revolution of research and understanding of aging, not of the aging process itself, but what to do about it. A major thrust of medical research, especially finding new ways to treat and cure disease, will be directed at the problems of the aging....

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