With more than 1.2 billion people age 60 and older worldwide, the social and economic toll of aging is staggering and rapidly escalating. But what exactly is aging? And can we decode its fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms to develop therapies that not only slow aging but potentially reverse it? Fordham University trustee Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., FCRH ’77 is a past president and distinguished professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.He studied biology at Fordham University, received his M.D. degree with distinction from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and performed his residency and postdoctoral training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. His research career began at Einstein as the Feinberg Senior Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research and an ACS research professor. DePinho then joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he was the founding director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Science and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Cancer Research.This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx