The Leibniz Graduate School on Aging and Age-Related Diseases (LGSA) of the Leibniz Institute on Aging /Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) is a joint activity of the Leibniz Institute for Age Research (FLI) and the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) in Jena. Training and research within the PhD programme is interdisciplinary with the endeavour to understand the multifaceted mechanisms that cause the development of age-related diseases and those that cause senescence and ageing. Ageing is a complex stochastic process based on genetic contributions as well as environmental influences. The process is still ill-understood. The LGSA is strengthening research on the mechanisms of decisive processes, in particular pathological processes which lead to consequences for health and healthy ageing.

The research topics focus on two sections. The cellular and organismic senescence covers genome stability, identification of genes involved in ageing and gene regulation as well as research on longevity. In the other section, the mechanisms leading to specific age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, kidney failure, osteoporosis, immunosenescence and cancer are under investigation.

The experimental methodology ranges from genomic approaches, protein biochemistry, structure analysis and cell culture to animal models of disease. The up-to-date research facilities of the FLI are located at the Beutenberg Campus in close vicinity to different institutes of the FSU and non-University institutions, which have their main focus on basic and applied biomedical research.