Leading scientists have warned that Age UK, the country's leading charity for older people, risks letting future generations down by abandoning fundamental research into the biology of ageing, instead only bankrolling studies that deliver short-term payoffs.

Professor Richard Faragher, chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing, said that the move was especially unwelcome when scientists are tantalisingly close to cracking the secrets of how cells and bodies age.

"I worry that the increased emphasis on translational research risks basic research dropping off the agenda of Age UK, which would be damaging for the charity, damaging for scientists and damaging for older people," said Faragher, a professor at the University of Brighton and an expert on premature ageing.

"Without basic research, you have nothing to translate. If you focus on the short term, you never make the problem go away."

Faragher sits on a research advisory committee for Research into Ageing, part of Age UK, but has spoken out in his capacity as BSRA chairman. The momentum in basic research, he said, was illustrated by a paper published in the journal Nature this month by a team of American and Dutch researchers showing that clearing older cells from the bodies of mice delayed the onset of chronic age-related disorders such as cancer.

The aim of such research, he insisted, was about extending the length of time for which people remain fit and well. "This is not about making people live for 50,000 years," he said. "To me, unsuccessful ageing is a largely unnecessary source of human misery that can be dealt with. The science is telling us that ageing is under the control of a few biological pathways that can be disrupted.

"We are actually on the brink of preventative medicines that can improve the diseases of old age. But if we don't pursue the science, we will continue to get lots of old, sick people who are very expensive – and very miserable."

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Source: Guardian.co.uk