This paper is based on a lecture on the history and the perspectives of experimental gerontology at the symposium in Nürnberg on the occasion of the 10th year jubilee of the Institute of Gerontology of the University of Erlangen. The discussion links the studies and ideas of the founders of gerontology as an interdisciplinary science (Metchnikoff, Korenchevsky, Bogomolets, Verzár) with some modern trends in experimental gerontology and ageing-related fields of biotechnology.