Beyond the usual suspects: expanding aging research from classic models to really cool critters.

Model organisms such as yeast, worms, flies, and mice were key to discovering genes and other factors controlling life span and directly improved our understanding of human aging. Today, genomic tools allow study of a broader range of species, including those with short or long life spans, closely related species with different aging rates, or differences in interspecies aging. Models such as killifish, bats, and ants have much to teach us about human aging. They also reveal a flexible biological toolkit that species can use when evolutionary pressures drive rebalancing of growth, reproduction, or resilience with age-related decline.