The Guardian
Research impact & recognition
Impact & recognition
Two contributions that changed the field
The Foundation’s two most consequential contributions have been regulatory and editorial rather than laboratory — bringing ageing to the threshold of formal disease classification, and setting the international research agenda for human radioresistance.
ICD-11 XT9T
Bringing ageing to the threshold of disease classification
The single largest regulatory obstacle facing longevity medicine is that ageing itself has no disease classification. In 2018 the Foundation moved that boundary.
Together with the International Longevity Alliance, the Foundation contributed to the addition of a new World Health Organization-approved extension code — XT9T, ‘ageing-related’ — during the ICD-11 revision. We were the first group to bring the classification of ageing this close to formal recognition.
Because ICD codes are a prerequisite for the registration of new drugs and therapies, recognising ageing as a pathological process removes a fundamental regulatory obstacle to therapeutic and preventive strategies targeting ageing and age-related disease.
- A joint proposal submitted to the WHO ICD-11 Task Force, co-authored by the Foundation
- Recognised as a landmark by The Lancet in a 2018 editorial
- Opens a registration pathway for ageing-targeted therapeutics
Why it matters
From classification to registration
No classificationAgeing had no ICD code
Joint proposalSubmitted to the WHO
Task Force
Task Force
XT9T addedWHO-approved extension
code
code
Pathway opensAgeing therapeutics
become registrable
become registrable
Landmark publication
Vive la radiorésistance!
Converging research in radiobiology and biogerontology to enhance human radioresistance for deep space exploration and colonization — Oncotarget, 2018.
2018
Published
Oncotarget
80+
Citations
Peer-reviewed literature
28,000+
Direct views
On the publisher’s site
Intl.
Collaboration
Multi-institution author group
What the paper set out
The paper defines a roadmap for enhancing human radioresistance — bringing radiobiology and biogerontology into a single framework, and cataloguing the genetic, pharmacological and physiological interventions that could make humans meaningfully more resistant to the radiation environment of deep space.
- A convergence of radiobiology and biogerontology
- Genetic, pharmacological and physiological intervention classes
- Framed for deep-space exploration and long-term colonisation
- Directly informs the Foundation’s current hypoxic radioprotection work