Exploring a general theory for the biodemography of human ageing

Since its inception, I have been involved in the Rate-of-Aging Project research group at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. This group attempts to test the controversial hypothesis that the rate of aging is a fundamental human invariant put forward in a Nature article by James Vaupel in 2010. He conjectured that since few genes in humans have been found which modify age-specific death risks, it may be that the rate of human aging is a fundamental biological constant that is invariant across individuals.

Further ongoing research is being carried out within this research group to properly estimate the rate-of-aging by accounting for the effects of progress in improving health, selection in heterogeneous populations, and correcting for non-senescent mortality.

Associated to this research, I submitted with Trifon I. Misson from the MPIDR, an article to the coming XXVII IUSSP International Population Conference: All You Can Fit. Statistical Challenges in Estimating the Human Rate of Aging (extended abstract).

In this paper we present several statistical approaches, their advantages and shortcomings which are crucial in order to check the mentioned hypothesis given the existing aggregate data on human mortality.