Basic aging research has always been intriguing but until recently seemed to hold few concrete solutions to advance health. Despite limited resources, the field recently erupted and now offers routes to achieve a new and ambitious goal—a substantial extension in health life expectancy, or “healthspan.” The lynchpin is that aging itself is the predominant risk factor for most diseases and conditions that limit healthspan. Moreover, interventions that extend lifespan in model organisms often delay or prevent many chronic diseases. This knowledge launched the era of geroscience, which strives to understand how aging enables chronic disease and seeks to develop novel multi-disease preventative and therapeutic approaches.