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Shinya Yamanaka goes for a run almost every morning. So do a lot of people—but the habit carries extra weight when done by a Nobel-winning scientist whose discovery forms the foundation for one of the most exciting areas of longevity research today: reprogramming human cells to make them act younger. When someone like that makes a daily habit of anything, you take notice.
Yamanaka had just come back from a run in late July, during one of Kyoto’s worst heatwaves, when he sat down with senior health correspondent Alice Park to talk about his career and the influence he’s had on the rapidly expanding longevity field 20 years after his landmark discovery. He is one of TIME’s 2026 Longevity Leaders highlighted in this week’s issue: 12 trailblazers marking the way to a longer, healthier life.
We set out to find some of the most innovative leaders who are starting to show concrete results in helping us to live longer, better. A few pioneering scientists—like Harvard geneticist David Sinclair and Altos Labs’ Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte—have put their own spin on Yamanaka’s discovery. They’re on a mission to reverse cellular aging in different parts of the human body. Others have stepped up to separate snake oil from legitimate science. Jamie Justice, for instance, runs XPrize Healthspan, a $101 million longevity science fair that is funding the most promising research around the world. And some are addressing the equally important question of how our society should change to accommodate an older population. AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan, for example, is leading the group into a new era of aging advocacy.
We are squarely in a longevity boom, and the field is now well established as serious science. But we are still near the beginning. Right now, there is no proven longevity drug you can take to make yourself live longer. (That we know of: Nir Barzilai, who thinks some existing drugs could be repurposed as longevity-boosting treatments, is eager to change that.) Some things are within your control, however. You can exercise, like Yamanaka; build muscle, which Dr. Gabrielle Lyon calls the “organ of longevity”; and strengthen your social ties, which Dr. Robert Waldinger has learned are crucial from directing the world’s longest study of human happiness. TIME’s 12 Longevity Leaders know that all of these approaches—medical, physical, social—are key in the quest to live as well as possible for as long as possible.
