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Contact: Stacey Harris American Federation for Aging Research Honors NEW YORK, September 24, 2009 -- Woodring E. Wright, MD, PhD, professor of Cell Biology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Brian K. Kennedy, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington, were selected as the 2009 recipients of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) Irving S. Wright Award and the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research Award, respectively. Dr. Wright studies the role of telomeres in cancer and aging. Telomeres form the caps that protect the ends of the chromosomes from being degraded or fused to each other. Every time a normal cell divides its telomeres become shorter, and this provides a counting mechanism that limits the ability of normal cells to divide. This process, called replicative aging, acts as a tumor suppressor mechanism. Dr. Wright demonstrated that restoring telomerase to normal cells allowed them to become immortal. He and his long-term collaborator Dr. Jerry Shay have also shown that most cancer cells express telomerase, an enzyme that can add DNA to the telomere to counteract telomere shortening, supporting the idea that cells have to overcome the limits of replicative aging in order to become malignant. His studies have also demonstrated that inhibiting telomerase in tumor cells results in reestablishing the counting mechanism, so that the tumor cells become mortal and eventually die. Dr. Wright's current work involves the structure of telomeres, the use of immortalized cells for regenerative medicine, and the comparative biology of telomeres and replicative aging.“AFAR is proud to present Professor Woodring (Woody) E. Wright with this prestigious award, named in honor of our founder, Dr. Irving Wright,” said George M. Martin, MD, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research and professor of pathology emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Woody, together with colleague Dr. Jerry Shay, brought great clarity to the question of why normal diploid somatic cells eventually cease to replicate and how to reverse this decline. This is something Dr. Vincent Cristofalo, whose memory we honor in this next award, pursued during most of his research career,” Dr. Martin added. Dr. Kennedy focuses on identifying the genes and cellular pathways that modulate aging. While studies in yeast, worms and flies have shown that altering the activity of a gene can dramatically extend lifespan, these organisms differ dramatically from mammals. Dr. Kennedy’s lab will study comparative approaches to identify conserved pathways modulating aging and to extend the study of these pathways to mice. A major conserved pathway that has been identified is the TOR pathway, which controls protein translation. Recent evidence from other investigators has shown that rapamycin, a drug that inhibits the TOR pathway, robustly extends lifespan in mice. Thus it is becoming possible to modulate the aging process in mammals by targeting specific genes. This raises the possibility that an untapped approach to diseases of human aging may involve altering the activity of genes and pathways that modulate the aging process. Since aging is a big risk factor for a range of prevalent diseases including heart disease, type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and many forms of cancer, an approach to slow aging may delay the onset of these diseases and extend human healthspan. Approaches in the Kennedy lab are directed at identifying the right pathways to target with drugs and understanding how these pathways control the aging process. Dr. Wright is the recipient of numerous awards including the Senior Scholar Award in Aging from the Ellison Medical Foundation; and the Hayflick Award from the American Aging Association. Dr. Kennedy is a recipient of two other AFAR-sponsored grants: The Julie Martin Mid Career Award in Aging Research and an AFAR Research Grant. “Vincent Cristofalo, would have enthusiastically approved the choice of Brian Kennedy as the second recipient of our new Rising Star award, as he was a great supporter of research on the genetic modulation of aging using model organisms. He would have been especially delighted to have learned that Brian and colleague Matt Kaeberlein are leading the way towards the discovery of mechanisms that are common to diverse organisms,” said Dr. Martin. The Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction is named in honor of the founder of the American Federation for Aging Research and is intended to honor exceptional contributions to basic or clinical research in the field of aging by members of the scientific community. The Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research Award honors the late Vincent Cristofalo, PhD, who devoted his professional career to conducting research on aging and encouraging younger scientists to investigate important problems in the biology of aging. The award recognizes outstanding researchers in the first half of their careers who have made major discoveries in the fundamental biology of aging and whose work is deemed likely to be highly influential for decades to come. Both awards will be formally presented at the AFAR annual awards dinner taking place in New York City on October 5, 2009. Dr. Wright will present the Wright Award Lecture at the Gerontological Society of America’s annual meeting in Atlanta on Thursday, November 19, 2009.
# # # AFAR is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support biomedical research on aging. It is devoted to creating the knowledge that all of us need to live healthy, productive, and independent lives. Since 1981, AFAR has awarded approximately $124 million to more than 2,600 early and mid-career scientists and medical students as part of its broad-based series of grant programs. Its work has led to significant advances in our understanding of aging processes, age-related diseases, and healthy aging practices. AFAR communicates news of these innovations through its organizational website www.afar.org and educational web sites Infoaging (www.infoaging.org) and Health Compass (www.healthcompass.org).
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American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) | 55 West 39th Street, 16th Floor | New York, NY 10018 Phone: (212) 703-9977 | Toll-free: (888) 582-2327 | Fax: (212) 997-0330 E-mail: or info@afar.org |
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