Ageing and resilience

Through bringing together interdisciplinary research and expertise, the University of Liverpool enables a holistic approach to understand and build resilience to the complex and varying challenges that ageing brings.

This research aims to address these challenges at an individual, population and societal level, thereby improving the health span and quality of life for ageing populations in the UK and across the world.

Our researchers seek to understand the biological ageing mechanisms and associated chronic diseases and disorders of ageing (including age-related vision loss, frailty, osteoarthritis, musculoskeletal ageing) so as to develop interventions to address these.

We explore how age-related life changes and issues (including bereavement & widow-hood, retirement, caring responsibilities, palliative care, loneliness in the elderly) can be understood, managed and supported to improve mental health.

Furthermore, our research community explores how to address the challenges of an ageing population at the societal and economic scale (including age-friendly cities & housing, an ageing workforce, health and care systems for the elderly, access to healthy food and transport links), with a sound knowledge base in understanding and improving inequalities around these challenges.

From lab bench to bedside, research team outputs and outcomes enable technological advances in treatment methods, as well as informing healthcare policy for improved care and prevention. Multidisciplinary teams of biologists, engineers and clinicians are applying the latest in regenerative medicine technology combined with 3D printing to replace retinal cells to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the most common cause of sight loss in the western world. A collaboration with the UK Space Agency will investigate skeletal muscle ageing using experiments on the International Space Station.