The pace of progress in longevity research creates pressure to interpret findings as more conclusive than the evidence supports. Mechanisms are described as established before causal structures are resolved. Interventions advance into translational contexts before the underlying biology is fully characterized.
VECVO exists to examine what remains unresolved. Each working paper starts from a specific open question in epigenetic reprogramming or aging biology, works through the primary literature, and states a position — with explicit acknowledgment of where evidence is incomplete or contested.
Epigenetic reprogramming is among the most significant developments in aging biology in recent decades. The mechanistic assumptions on which current approaches depend are still being tested.
Stated Positions
01Epigenetic clocks correlate with biological age across tissues and species, but the causal relationship between methylation drift and aging remains unresolved.
02Partial reprogramming can reverse epigenetic age markers while the same factors, under different conditions, erase cell identity entirely. The boundary is incompletely characterized.
03The information theory of aging is a productive framework, not a demonstrated mechanism.
04Heterochromatin loss with age is reproducible across species. Whether it functions as driver or downstream consequence is not resolved.
