Mobility can be defined as the ability to move, or be moved, from place to place. Without a doubt, it represents critical determinant of an individual’s personal independence and quality of life. But mobility is not just a personal concern. Anne Friedlander, PhD coordinates the Stanford Center on Longevity’s interactions with scientists across a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Q. Dr. Friedlander, mobility is such a broad notion. What is its relationship to longevity?

As people live longer, giving them the ability to remain independent for as long as possible becomes increasingly important. But this is not a simple task with straightforward solutions. For one thing, establishing the practice of keeping fit and active at an early age will give people the best chance for staying fit, active, and independent later in life. However, there are so many different kinds of challenges in later life. Mobility for a person who is sight-impaired but otherwise healthy, may hinge on having access to public transportation and routes that provide that person with the ability to obtain basic goods and services. Retaining mobility for a person with an arthritic hip might require a surgery to replace that hip, an exercise program, and/or assistive devices. It could also mean changing one’s living situation if the person lives in a two-story home. What we are trying to do is think about mobility in terms of interventions that may be applied throughout the lifespan that will add up to more people staying active and mobile longer than ever before. Strategies for keeping people mobile can include promoting physical activity, developing assistive technologies, or improving mass transportation and urban planning. It also can zoom into the molecular and cellular realm, where research into the fundamental biology of repairing injuries or keeping muscles strong may someday hold the key to people retaining their strength and mobility longer.

Q. How do you tackle something so broad?

What we are doing first is identifying major issues of mobility facing older people. Then, the idea is to implement both preventative and ameliorative strategies. We are creating working groups led by selected Stanford faculty to address the major issues related to mobility. Each working group will have unique structures, procedures, and goals depending on the needs of the discipline.

Q. What are the projects underway now?

We’ve identified 5 initial topics areas on which to focus. The first is Regenerative Medicine, led by Tom Rando, MD, PhD (Stanford Center on Longevity and Department of Medicine). Dr. Rando is studying the basic biology of muscle and manipulating the function of muscle stem cells in age-related muscle atrophy. He is focused on the natural repair mechanisms that seem to break down as we age, with the hope that we might be able to reverse some of those processes.

Another crucial project involves Joint Health, led by Tom Andriacchi, PhD (Mechanical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery). Arthritis remains one of the enormous physical burdens of aging for millions of people. Dr. Andriacchi is looking for ways to impact the progression of arthritis and at least delay if not prevent the need for medication and joint replacement.

Many of today’s planned communities focus on the needs of families and children for recreation. Tomorrow’s planned communities could very well incorporate new ideas about motivating people of all ages to walk and exercise more. We will be working with creative thinkers such as Larry Frank, PhD (faculty affiliate who will be joining the Stanford Prevention Research Center) to develop a Built Environment project, where we will promote urban design in new developments and existing communities that encourages mobility outside the home.

My own focus is on understanding the benefits of physical activity on people’s body, mind and overall health. Being physically active can be both the goal and the means to a healthy old age. Therefore, we are developing innovative programs, technologies and messages that promote physical activity throughout the lifespan.

Finally, there are people for whom traditional exercise and physical independence is simply not possible. We are nonetheless hopeful that we can use assistive technologies such as robots or other mechanized devices, to assist people in ways that allow them to feel and be more self-sufficient and self-directed. Currently the focus of this topic area is on a new robot platform that is designed to live in people’s homes and assist with personal chores and medical tasks. It comes from the lab of Ken Salisbury, PhD (Departments of Computer Science and Surgery).

Together, we hope that these projects will make important contributions to the physical process and culture of aging.