Circadian rhythms in aging and longevity: from molecular chronomics to translational gerontology

Aging is accompanied by progressive deterioration in physiological homeostasis, increasing vulnerability to metabolic, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and immune disorders. Over the past two decades, circadian biology has emerged as a central integrative framework linking environmental time cues to cellular, tissue, and organismal resilience. The circadian timing system (CTS), composed of a central pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and peripheral clocks throughout the body, orchestrates daily rhythms in physiology and behavior. This special collection of articles in Biogerontology, entitled "Circadian Rhythms in Aging and Longevity," brings together 16 original and review articles from seven countries (India, China, Turkey, Brazil, Taiwan, Japan, and the USA). Collectively, these studies, span molecular chronomics, immune aging, neurodegenerative disease, metabolism and computational and translational perspectives, highlighting circadian regulation as a unifying principle in aging biology.