NEW YORK, July 8 — The calculus around aging research is shifting. Two drugs, one a decades-old diabetes staple and the other a transplant immunosuppressant, are now at the center of a strategic push to redefine what it means to grow old. Metformin, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1994 for type 2 diabetes, has been in clinical use for decades.
But researchers are now studying it for a very different purpose: slowing the aging process. The TAME trial — Targeting Aging with Metformin — is the flagship effort.
Led by Nir Barzilai at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the trial began enrolling participants in 2016. The target: roughly 3,000 people aged 65 to 79. Funding comes from the American Federation for Aging Research and the National Institute on Aging.
This is not a small-scale academic exercise. What this signals is a deliberate, institutional bet that a safe, generic drug could be repurposed for something far more ambitious than managing blood sugar.
The Rapamycin Parallel
The other drug in this picture is rapamycin, discovered in 1964 from soil bacteria on Easter Island. The FDA approved it in 1999 as an immunosuppressant for organ transplant patients. But its role in aging research came later, and it was dramatic.
In 2009, a study by David Harrison at the Jackson Laboratory showed that rapamycin extended the lifespan of mice by up to 30 percent. Crucially, this effect held even when treatment started late in life.
That finding reshaped the research landscape. The Intervention Testing Program, funded by the National Institute on Aging since 2003, has been the institutional backbone for this kind of work. The program tests compounds in mice at three sites: the Jackson Laboratory, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Rapamycin has been a consistent focus of their work.
The Combination Calculus
A 2014 study from the same Intervention Testing Program produced a finding that caught the attention of researchers. The combination of rapamycin and metformin extended mouse lifespan further than either drug alone. That result is strategically significant.
For now, the research remains in the experimental phase. The TAME trial is still enrolling and analyzing data.
The Intervention Testing Program continues its work at three sites. The combination of metformin and rapamycin has shown promise in mice, but human trials for that specific combination have not yet been launched. Consult your doctor for medical advice.
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