Abstract
While still young in people-years—in fact, at the lower edge of Gen Z—Rejuvenation Research has just passed the 20-year landmark, and we would like to congratulate our wonderful staff, authors, reviewers, and editors on this accomplishment by our journal! We also would like to express heartfelt thanks to our readership and to the superb field of aging researchers and longevity enthusiasts, everywhere.
We are at volume 27, not 21, because the journal was created as a rebranding of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine (JAAM) when Dr. Aubrey de Grey took over as editor-in-chief (EIC) from Dr. Michael Fossel, who had been at the helm for 6 years. And those of us who have been at the forefront of this field throughout those two decades have certainly witnessed a clear transformation from mostly studying the many detriments of aging, which was and continues to be needed, to developing new rational approaches for attenuating and, possibly, reversing the aging process. The current and previous EICs pioneered several paradigms in the field of enhanced longevity and are the cheerleaders of addressing aging as a malleable event.
The name was important: JAAM suffered from being seen as a medical journal when it was in fact aspiring to be a research journal, and from the baggage that was previously associated with the word “anti-aging.” Dr. de Grey was sure that the word “research” was needed. But into what? Several high-impact articles, including those by Dr. Conboy, had “rejuvenation” in their titles and Dr. de Grey had a deep conviction that it was the right word to denote the focus of our journal. Interestingly, 20 years ago, the word “rejuvenation” was also entrenched in the cosmetic industry. This name clearly stood the test of time, as many impactful articles that receive thousands of citations proudly state rejuvenation in their titles, abstracts, and key conclusions.
Different viewpoints continue to exist on aging, for example, is it caused by damage or is it programmed? Or are these two options inter-related and not really separate from each other? Did we evolve to age at a particular speed, or did we not evolve to repair our molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ systems to withstand the entropy longer? One thing remains clear, everybody has aging: thus, ours is a field whose public interest is second to none.
As various components of rejuvenation science and technology advance in academic laboratories, biotech, and clinics worldwide, Rejuvenation Research is at the forefront of the endeavor that is important not only on the individual level, but also for countries that are becoming progressively older in their demographics and for the entire planet: we would certainly have taken better care of Earth if we lived on it longer, being healthier, and more productive.
Moving forward, we decided that an effective and needed by the field next step for Rejuvenation Research is to solicit high-quality critical reviews, giving appropriate prominence to the many controversies that logically exist within this rapidly evolving field. This direction will not only be valuable, but it will also be fun. And when scientists enjoy their work, it tends to accelerate!
Irina Conboy
Editor-in-Chief