This news item is about: From ancient alchemical quests to modern biological research, efforts to understand and combat human aging have borne few fruits. Now Cornell scientists are aiming to bridge the gap between lab research and aging’s complexities in real life using the power of dogs. With funding from the NIH National Institute of Aging, they are joining interdisciplinary collaborators from institutions across the country to form the Canine Longevity Consortium— the first ever research network studying canine aging. It will lay the groundwork for a nationwide Canine Longitudinal Aging Study (CLAS), using dogs as a powerful new model system that researchers can study to find how genetic and environmental factors influence aging and what interventions might mitigate age-related diseases.