The Buck Institute for Research on Aging today announced the launch of Healthspan Horizons, a new initiative designed to address one of the most urgent challenges in modern medicine: how to measure, understand, and extend healthspan-the years of life spent in good health.
People are living longer-but too many of those added years are spent managing chronic disease. In other words, healthspan-the years of life lived in good health-hasn't kept pace. A growing body of evidence suggests that many aspects of healthy aging are changeable-and consequential for people, healthcare systems, and economies. What has been missing is the infrastructure to measure it coherently, compute it responsibly, and act on it collectively.
What Healthspan Horizons is building
Healthspan Horizons is building a new kind of healthspan research infrastructure: a platform that links multi-modal, real-world data from people's everyday engagement with trusted wellness partners-like wearables, sleep, activity, nutrition, and labs-with periodic deep discovery measurements led by the Buck. The goal is to create uniquely powerful, long-term datasets that reveal what actually drives human healthspan over time-and to use responsible AI and the science of aging to turn those signals into interpretable healthspan trajectories and earlier signals of disease prevention.
Dense longitudinal datasets matter because their value compounds: when many different signals are measured on the same person over time, the data becomes exponentially more informative. That density makes it possible to detect subtle patterns, understand resilience, and identify early divergence from healthy aging-well before a sudden, life-ending, or life-debilitating disease takes hold.
Healthspan Horizons will support participation through partner programs and Buck-led studies, enabling individuals, wellness companies, and health systems to contribute longitudinal data under clear permissions and ethical governance. In return, participants gain access to a shared discovery engine: insights that emerge only when diverse data streams are responsibly linked over time-helping validate what works, identify earlier signals of decline, and benchmark outcomes across populations. Over time, the platform aims to translate these discoveries into clearer guidance on what helps people stay resilient-supporting more years of energy, strength, and independence.
Used responsibly, AI-grounded in Buck's deep biology of aging-can integrate complex, multi-modal signals into interpretable healthspan trajectories, unlocking more years of energy, function, and independence. But that future is only possible if we can responsibly connect the right kinds of data at scale. Healthspan Horizons exists to make that integration possible-and to help democratize the benefits of healthspan science for all.
A federated, privacy-preserving model
Healthspan Horizons at the Buck Institute responds to this gap by reframing how healthspan science is organized. Instead of forcing data into a single silo, Healthspan Horizons enables partners to collaborate and learn together while keeping data stewardship where it belongs. Through a federated, privacy-preserving approach, approved analyses can run across partner environments-without requiring ownership or commercialization of individuals' health data.
The science of aging has matured to the point where extending healthy life is within reach. What we need now is the infrastructure to organize and apply that knowledge responsibly. Healthspan Horizons positions the Buck to help lead that next chapter-making healthspan measurable, trustworthy, and accessible to all."
Eric Verdin, President and CEO, Buck Institute of Research on Aging
"Most of us don't just want a longer life-we want more years of energy, strength, and independence," said Nathan Price, PhD, Professor, Buck Institute for Research on Aging; Co-Founder, Healthspan Horizons. "What's been missing is a way to bring together deep, long-term health data and apply rigorous AI to understand what truly drives healthy aging-responsibly, interoperably, and at scale. Healthspan Horizons is built to make that possible."
A platform for collective healthspan intelligence
Healthspan Horizons is designed as an open, federated platform that links deep biological data, longitudinal outcomes, and real-world context. By aligning fragmented data ecosystems through shared standards, interpretable intelligence, and ethical governance, the initiative creates the conditions for healthspan to become a practical and trusted unit of value across research, care delivery, and policy.
The platform invites participation not simply as users, but as co-builders of a healthspan commons.
- Researchers are invited to contribute methods, validation, and discovery into a shared framework that expands the reach, reuse, and real-world relevance of existing science -while preserving data privacy and consented data sovereignty.
- Clinicians and health systems can collaborate on translating complex data into interpretable healthspan trajectories that support prevention, early intervention, and functional longevity.
- Payers and employers can explore new models of value grounded in functional years gained, rather than episodic utilization.
- Individuals are invited to participate as informed partners, retaining agency over their data while benefiting from insights designed to support longer, healthier lives.
- Donors and public partners are encouraged to support shared infrastructure focused on healthspan as a public good.
Healthspan Horizons is focused on defining and validating shared healthspan measures-turning multi-modal longitudinal data into computable trajectories and early-warning signals that partners can use for research and prevention.
Why Buck, why now
Healthspan Horizons is driven by Buck Institute scientists and systems thinkers with decades of experience at the intersection of aging biology, data science, and translational research.
Led by Nathan Price, PhD, and Yi Sherry Zhang, PhD, this initiative launches with engagement from leaders across research, healthcare, philanthropy, and innovation ecosystems, including an advisory group spanning academic medicine, systems biology, precision health, and public health. Advisors include Larry Brilliant, MD, global public health leader and Co-Founder and CEO of Evity; Joel Dudley, PhD, biomedical AI entrepreneur, Co-Founder and CSO of Bevimi and former Chief Scientific Officer of Tempus; Kara Fitzgerald, ND, leading clinician–researcher advancing epigenetics and lifestyle medicine; Lee Hood, MD, PhD, pioneer of systems biology and CEO of Phenome Health; Shaista Malik, MD, MPH, Associate Vice Chancellor for Integrative Health at the University of California, Irvine and cardiologist specializing in preventive cardiology; Sara Szal, MD, functional medicine physician and New York Times bestselling author focused on precision longevity; and Eric Verdin, MD, President and CEO of the Buck Institute and internationally recognized geroscience leader.
"Medicine is shifting from reactive and episodic to predictive and preventive," said Lee Hood, MD, PhD, pioneer of systems biology and CEO of Phenome Health. "To make that transformation real, we must move beyond fragmented data silos toward shared, federated intelligence. Healthspan Horizons helps build the computational and ethical foundation needed to make healthspan measurable and actionable."
A shared commitment to the future of healthspan
The future of healthspan will not be defined by any single dataset, institution, or technology. It will be shaped by how effectively societies choose to organize, govern, and apply scientific knowledge.
Healthspan Horizons exists to help make that future possible-by ensuring that healthspan becomes computable, trustworthy, and accessible, while remaining grounded in human dignity and collective benefit.
The full Healthspan Horizons White Paper, Bridging Wellness & Clinical Science: A Federated Healthspan Data Framework for the 21st-Century Longevity Economy, outlines the scientific, technical, and governance foundations of this effort and is available at healthspanhorizons.org/whitepaper. Researchers, clinicians, organizations, and individuals interested in participating are invited to learn more at healthspanhorizons.org/join.
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