In this opening talk, Marvin Edeas, Founder of the World Mitochondria Society (WMS) and Organizer of Targeting Longevity, introduces the central vision of Targeting Longevity: aging as a progressive loss of coordination between biological systems. Longevity is increasingly understood as the capacity of living systems to maintain resilience through the continuous dialogue between mitochondria, microbiota, metabolism, and cellular signaling.

This contribution explores how extracellular vesicles, microbial metabolites, and mitochondrial signaling pathways mediate communication between organs, cells, and microbial ecosystems. These interactions regulate adaptation to metabolic and environmental stress and influence long-term biological stability.

Rather than targeting isolated mechanisms, this systems perspective proposes that longevity strategies should focus on preserving biological coherence across time. By placing mitochondria–microbiota crosstalk at the center of aging biology, this lecture sets the conceptual foundation for the meeting and frames longevity as the science of resilience.

Point of view on Aging & Longevity by Marvin Edeas,
Chairman and Organizer of Targeting Longevity 2026 in Berlin

Have We Been Studying Aging the Wrong Way?

For twenty years, longevity research has searched for targets:

• Target the pathway.
• Silence the gene.
• Clear the senescent cell.
• Boost the mitochondria.

But what if aging is not a defect to fix?

What if aging is the progressive loss of coordination between biological systems?

And yet, aging persists.

What if the problem is not damage?

What if the real issue is coordination?

• Biological systems do not age alone.
• Mitochondria speak to immunity.
• Microbiota influence metabolism.
• Redox signals shape repair.

When this dialogue weakens, resilience collapses.

Maybe aging is not something to eliminate.

Maybe it is something to understand as a systems phenomenon.

If that is true, then adding more “anti-aging” tools and pills may not be the solution.

Maybe we need a new framework entirely.

For Marvin Edeas, chairman and organizer of Targeting Longevity 2026 in Berlin, we are asking a different question::

• Is aging a communication failure?
• And if so, how do we restore biological coherence instead of chasing isolated targets?

When these systems stop communicating efficiently, resilience declines.

Maybe the next breakthrough in longevity will not be a pill.

Maybe it will be a shift in perspective.

At Targeting Longevity 2026 in Berlin, we are asking a different question:

• How do we preserve biological coordination over time?
• If aging is a communication failure, should we focus less on intervention and more on restoring dialogue?
• Where do you think longevity science should go next?

Targeting Longevity 2026
April 8-9, 2026
 – Berlin, Germany

www.targeting-longevity.com