Prof Andrea B. Maier

Oon Chiew Seng Professor in Medicine, National University of Singapore Co-Founder, NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity, National University of Singapore

Andrea B. Maier (1978), a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP), graduated in Medicine (MD) 2003 from the University of Lübeck (Germany), was registered 2009 in The Netherlands as Specialist in Internal Medicine-Geriatrics and was appointed Full Professor of Gerontology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 2013. She was the head of Geriatrics at the Vrije Universiteit Medical Center from 2012 to 2016. From 2016 to early 2021 Professor Maier served as Divisional Director of Medicine and Community Care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia, and as Professor of Medicine and Aged Care at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She continued her career at the National University of Singapore as Director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity. Professor Maier’s research focuses on unraveling the mechanisms of ageing and age-related diseases to bring diagnostics and interventions to optimize health into clinical practice. She is heading international longitudinal cohort studies and geroscience interventions. She has published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, achieving an H index of 72, spearheading the significant contributions of her highly acclaimed innovative, global, multidisciplinary @Age research group. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs and book author to disseminate aging research. Furthermore, she is invited member and advisor of several international academic and health policy committees and funding agencies, including the World Health Organization evaluating the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing and Hevolution. In 2022, she co-founded the first evidence based Healthy Longevity Medicine Clinic in Singapore, Chi Longevity, and joined NU as Chief Medical Officer. She is the past President of The Australian and New Zealand Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty Research, the Founding President of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society and serves as selected Member of The Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, Fellow of the Atria Academy of Science and Medicine, and Academy for Health and Lifespan Research. In 2023, she co-founded the NUS Academy for Healthy Longevity to disseminate Geroscience and evidence based Healthy Longevity Medicine.

Closing the Gap between Healthspan and Lifespan: Healthy Longevity Medicine

Medical research has traditionally focused on disease mechanisms and therapies to restore health. This approach has been highly effective, but because of its effectiveness, demographics of countries are changing. Chronologic age is the largest risk factor for decline in organ function and for age-related diseases, which are now highly prevalent. Therewith, healthcare costs are steadily increasing and the gap between healthspan, the duration an individual maintains good health, and lifespan is escalating. The biological age of individuals can now be measured by use of biomarkers of ageing. Furthermore, geroprotective interventions are readily available to lower the biological age and therewith preventing age-related diseases and increasing healthspan. Geroprotectors include highly personalized lifestyle modifications, supplements and medication which are chosen based on the biological, clinical and digital fingerprint of individuals. The efficacy of the intervention is tested by remeasurement of the biological age and interventions adapted accordingly. Healthy Longevity Medicine using cutting edge evidence-based diagnostics and interventions is being implemented into healthcare internationally, to address the challenges of an ageing society - closing the gap between healthspan and lifespan.