Harnessing hibernation: Unlocking nature's secrets for advances in healthy aging, critical care, and space exploration.

Aging poses one of the greatest biomedical challenges of our time, with rising rates of frailty, sarcopenia, and cognitive decline globally. Preserving muscle and brain health is central to maintaining independence and quality of life in aging populations. This commentary explores how hibernation research, rooted in comparative physiology, offers unprecedented opportunities for drug discovery and therapeutic innovation. Hibernating animals exhibit remarkable abilities to regulate metabolism, protect the brain and muscles from atrophy, and prevent cellular damage under extreme conditions. These adaptations could inform new strategies for muscle preservation during inactivity, neuroprotection, and targeted temperature management, as well as critical needs in aging, neurocritical care, and space medicine. The bidirectional relationship between muscle and brain health underscores the potential for hibernation-inspired therapies to address both sarcopenia and cognitive decline. Applying these insights to space medicine and critical care settings could lead to groundbreaking solutions for unmet medical needs. Just as GLP-1 agonists emerged from the study of Gila monster venom, focusing on nature's extreme survivors may reveal overlooked molecular targets for drug development. By harnessing these adaptations, we can advance biomimicry in medical research and inspire sustainable solutions for healthy aging, critical care, and space exploration-offering new hope for patients, clinicians, and policymakers.