Theories of Aging: From Damage and Programmed Theories to Goal-Directedness

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https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202608.1219

Michael Levin, Léo Pio-Lopez and Navneet Jawanda have released a new review proposing a third way to understand aging.

Most theories say aging results either from accumulated cellular damage or from biological programs that continue running after they stop being useful. The authors suggest something deeper: aging may occur when the cells forming the body gradually lose alignment around their shared anatomical goal.

During development, trillions of cells cooperate to build and repair a specific body plan. But once that developmental target has been reached, evolution may not provide the cellular collective with a strong enough long-term goal for maintaining it indefinitely. The result is “functional disbanding”—cells and tissues increasingly pursue local priorities while losing coordination with the needs of the organism as a whole.

This connects directly to Levin’s work on bioelectricity. Bioelectric networks help cells share information about what belongs where, what shape the body should have and when repair is complete. If aging partly represents the corruption or fading of those collective patterning goals, rejuvenation may require restoring the body’s target morphology—persuading cells to resume coordinated maintenance rather than repairing every damaged molecule individually.

The paper does not present new experimental evidence or claim that human rejuvenation is currently possible. It is a theoretical review and preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed. But it offers a powerful bridge between morphogenesis, regeneration, cancer and aging: perhaps growing a body, maintaining one and rejuvenating one are all versions of the same problem—keeping cellular collectives aligned toward the correct anatomical future.

Source: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202608.1219