Overview


The Longevity Consortium (LC) is a large research project focused on identifying, characterizing, and promoting the clinical and public health use of factors that contribute to human lifespan and healthspan. The LC has a 25+ year history and is currently made up of over 60 researchers from 20 different institutions. It is funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Institutes of Aging (NIA) within the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

History of the Consortium
The LC was organized in 1999 by Dr. Steven Cummings to identify genetic factors that affect longevity and aging in humans. In its initial phase (Phase I), a planning committee was formed to discuss research methods and results from several disciplines, form cross-disciplinary collaborations, and identify potential biological pathways that may harbor genetic variants that affect human lifespan. This phase, which was supported by a planning grant from the NIA, brought together researchers interested in longevity and aging from a variety of disciplines, including laboratory scientists who study longevity in model systems; epidemiologists who have enrolled and followed large cohorts of elderly people; experts in genomic methods; biostatisticians interested in the analysis of the associations between genetic data and complex traits; demographers who study patterns of mortality and life expectancy; and gerontologists and geriatricians. The planning committee included many members of the current LC. Since then, the LC has been through four phases, all motivated by the belief that the identification of genetic and other factors contributing to longevity, as well as the pathways/mechanisms mediating their effects on health and life span, could lead to the development of new interventions to promote healthy aging. The LC is now part of an ongoing group of NIA-supported human longevity translational projects under an umbrella initiative that includes the Long Life Family Study (LLFS), the Integrated Longevity Genomics (ILO) consortium, the Longevity Genomics consortium (LG, no longer pursued) and the recently established Data Management and Coordinating Center. Each of these consortia leverages the NIA’s Exceptional Longevity Translational Resources (ELITE) Portal and research infrastructure. The current Phase 5 of the LC emphasizes integration of the type characteristic of the first four phases but to an even greater degree.

Organizational Structure 
The organizational structure of the Longevity Consortium (LC) is complex given its interdisciplinary nature. A chart depicting the connections between the components of the LC is provided in Figure 1. The components of this organization chart reflect the governance, research efforts, result tracking, compliance, data sharing, and financial oversight of the LC. For ease of understanding, six sets of components of the LC organization are color coded in Figure 1. Gray colored components are the main structural components of the consortium and include the 5 projects and 2 cores. The projects were each designed to address a specific major theme of the NIA’s Request for Applications (RFA) that motivated the current LCM and include: Project 1 (P1) focusing on predictive modeling and context-specific population-based analyses; P2 focusing on cross species and evolutionary analyses; P3 focusing on factors contributing to extreme longevity and protection from Alzheimer’s diseases and related dementias; P4 focusing on testing drugs and natural products for their effects on health and life span in mice and non-human species and charting courses of action for developing drugs and products further; and P5 focusing on  cell modeling and functional assays. The two cores are the Administrative Core (AC) and the Integrated Analysis Core (IAC). The AC provides governance and oversight for the consortium which are discussed at greater in subsection below. The IAC addresses another major theme of the RFA. The final structural components involve NIA collaborations and steering committee oversight – both of which help guide individual day-to-day scientific directions and activities.


Overview Chart

There are three advisory and oversight components, color coded in orange, and these include the Observational Study Monitoring Board (OSMB), the NIA program office, and the Pharmaceutical and Translational Advisory Panel (PTAP). The OSMB and NIA participate in aspects of the overall decision-making for the LC, whereas the PTAP focuses on directions in drug and general product development. To enable and enhance the scientific activities of the consortium and enhance internal collaborations, five working groups (WGs) were established (color coded light blue in Figure 1): a ‘training WG’ focusing on pre- and post-doctoral researchers as well as funded career development awardees (e.g., K-Awardees) working with LC investigators; a ‘functional assessment WG’ pursuing studies of the functional effects of analytes found to be associated with longevity and healthy aging; two data sharing WGs: one focused on general data set access, storage and use and one focused on data sets with restrictions on their use; and an ‘Integrated Analysis (IA)’ that considers findings from the consortium as a whole that might benefit from replication, integration and triangulation. 

The LC also is heavily involved in the operation of two broader working groups overseen by the DMCC: a ‘cross species WG’ and a ‘heterogeneity analysis WG’. These WGs involve participants across all the ELITE consortia. Four administrative components help with the logistics, coordination and outreach of the LC operations (color coded in purple) and include a publications and presentations committee, an opportunity funds mechanism to support research that expands the consortium activities, a lecture series that provides exposure to the consortium, and routine interactions with the DMCC for issues of data access, governance, and deposits. Two integrated activities that involve direct cross project and core interactions are color coded in yellow and include carrying out functional assays on analytes found to be associated with longevity and healthy aging across the consortium and refining lists of candidate drugs and interventions for broader development. Finally, three products and deliverables are color coded in light green and include the development of clinically meaningful prediction models, the identification of candidate drug/intervention targets, and the identification of candidate compounds for testing in pre-clinical models. In addition, the different levels of communication and information flow across the consortia components and researchers are provided in the right-hand column of Figure 1. These levels correspond to: 1. Administrative oversight and governance; 2. Day-to-day scientific interactions within and between the projects; 3. Focused integration of results and data; and 4. Considerations involving preclinical product development that emerges from the research.