Geneticist Predicts Humans Could Live to 150 Years as Life Expectancy Reaches Record Highs

Americans are living longer than ever before, with U.S. life expectancy reaching 79 years in 2024 – an all-time high according to CDC data. This upward trend is expected to continue into 2025, driven by decreasing mortality rates from COVID-19, unintentional injuries including drug overdoses, heart disease, and cancer.

But how far could human longevity extend? According to one prominent geneticist, we may eventually see humans living to 150 years old.

Dr. Steve Horvath, principal investigator at the Altos Labs Cambridge Institute of Science in the UK, made this bold prediction in a recent feature with Time magazine. “150 is a very fashionable number now,” Horvath stated. “I have no doubt it will happen. No question.”

As a former professor of human genetics and biostatistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, Horvath has dedicated his career to understanding the biological markers of aging. His groundbreaking work led to the development of the first widely used “aging clock” in the early 2010s – a method for estimating biological age by measuring molecular changes in cells.

Initially incorporating saliva data, Horvath’s clock proved reliable across multiple tissues, including blood, skin, and various organs. He later developed additional biological aging clocks that studies have shown to be strong predictors of mortality risk.

“I felt that it was important to develop an aging clock to advance scientific inquiry in the field of longevity,” Horvath explained. “I felt we needed exact measurements of aging before we could really study it, and then hopefully one day find interventions that can reverse aging.”

While Horvath acknowledges that humans are unlikely to ever reach the 1,000-year lifespan he dreamed of as a child, he remains optimistic about significant extensions to human life expectancy in the coming decades.

“Imagine we have 100 more years of biomedical innovations — what will that do for health?” he posed. “Of course, we would expect major breakthroughs.”

Horvath believes that barring catastrophic events like wars or pandemics, humanity will eventually develop methods to dramatically extend lifespan. “In an abstract sense… our species at some point will find ways to extend lifespan drastically,” he said.

Dr. Eve Henry, chief medical officer at the personalized health platform Hundred Health, described Horvath’s prediction as “not an impossible take” and agreed that the research is “very optimistic.”

“The research is correct. The first step in this process is to accurately measure biological age and the speed of aging in real time,” said the California-based doctor. “This will allow us to test interventions for improved longevity quickly, rather than set up aging experiments that would take decades to complete.”

Henry emphasized the scientific importance of measurement in advancing understanding. “In science, once you can truly measure something, it gives you new power to study it,” she noted.

However, Henry cautioned that achieving the level of longevity Horvath suggests would require a “game-changing intervention that resets a lot of our physiology.” While acknowledging she hasn’t yet seen such an intervention, she expressed excitement about living “in an era when this kind of research is possible.”

Any significant extension of human lifespan would raise important questions about quality of life, Henry pointed out. There’s a crucial distinction between extending life with maintained independence versus requiring extensive healthcare and community support.

“There’s a key difference in living 50 to 70 years longer if independence can be sustained with the longevity tools and care available, compared to the idea of even living 10 years beyond the average life span today, which requires extensive health and community assistance,” she explained.

The research into human longevity continues to evolve rapidly, with biological aging clocks representing just one avenue of exploration. Other areas of investigation include genetic therapies, cellular rejuvenation techniques, and interventions targeting age-related diseases.

While the scientific community remains divided on just how far human lifespan can be extended, Horvath’s work has undeniably advanced the field by providing crucial measurement tools. As Henry concluded, “This research is certainly promising, but the reality is that only time can tell what the future of human lifespan could really look like.”