FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists In Massachusetts And Beyond Are Working To Slow The Aging Process.

At a forum on Cape Cod earlier this month, Harvard scientist David Sinclair had the rapt attention of biotech executives and investors as he described treating 20-month-old mice with a molecule to restore their youthfulness. Before long, the geriatric rodents were outracing 2-month-old mice.

Yes, Sinclair told his audience, “We can turn an old mouse into a healthy young mouse.”

The Fountain of Rodent Youth feat, outlined in March in the scientific journal Cell, hasn’t been replicated with humans. But researchers, who have long scoffed at the anti-aging claims made by companies pitching dubious products, are warming to the idea that serious science can be deployed to increase human longevity.

Ambitious efforts are underway in Massachusetts and beyond to develop the first government-approved drugs to stretch healthy life spans. Some researchers are scrambling to repurpose a diabetes medicine to target age-related diseases. Others are working to boost levels of a key protein to increase blood flow and endurance, or to find a way to kill “zombie cells” that can send out toxins that cause age-related maladies.

These approaches and others are part of an emerging field known as geroscience. Its advocates believe that the best way to treat a variety of illnesses — from cancers and heart disease to Alzheimer’s and macular degeneration — is to attack the aging process itself.

“Aging is the biggest risk factor for many diseases,” said Eric Verdin, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, Calif., where scientist Gordon Lithgow coined the term geroscience in 2007. “Right now, we’re treating diseases in silos. But if we tinker with the pathways that control life span, we can address a whole range of diseases.”

Well, hurry up. None of us is getting any younger.