Richard W. Besdine, MD, with Insights into Stroke

AFAR Medical Officer Richard W. Besdine, MD, weighed in on stroke prevention, on January 5, 2013, with a contribution to TED Weekends on the Huffington Post. Dr. Besdine was one of several experts who the Huffington Post invited to respond to the big ideas presented in Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talk on stroke. Dr. Besdine emphasized the things we can do to “make their own luck” and reduce the risk of stroke, which is the fourth leading cause of death in America. Dr. Besdine also blogs on health care and aging on the AOL Healthy Living site.…

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AFAR Receives Grant from Irene Diamond Fund

Read more about the grant at Philanthropy News Digest.

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Nature Magazine Takes a Special Look at Aging

A special Nature Outlooks supplement on the science of aging was published in the December 6, 2012, issue of Nature. The supplement included articles on longevity across species, changes in stem cell behavior with aging, insights to be gained from studying the genomes of centenarians, and new health technologies helping older adults maintain independence. Nearly a dozen AFAR grantees, as well as AFAR board members and honorees, weighed in on the achievements of aging research in supplement.

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Richard W. Besdine, MD, on Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Factors

In his latest blog post, AFAR Medical Officer Richard W. Besdine, MD, addresses the widespread misperception that there is nothing individuals can do to control their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Besdine discusses several actions and habits that can reduce risk of developing Alzheimer’s. He also explores the risk factors that remain out of individuals' control, as well as Alzheimer’s prevalence and treatment in the US today. This is the tenth post in Dr. Besdine's series on health care and aging on the AOL Healthy Living site. Read all of his articles…

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Grantee in the News: Vera Gorbunova, PhD, finds cancer-prevention mechanism in long-lived rodent

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences on November 5, Vera Gorbunova, PhD, uncovered a cellular mechanism that keeps the blind mole rat, an exceptionally long-lived rodent, from developing cancer. When she and her team created cultures of blind mole rat tissue, the release of the molecule interferon-beta triggered coordinated cell death, preventing the uncontrolled proliferation of cancerous cells. Interestingly, this is distinct from the previously discovered cancer-prevention mechanism in the cells of the naked mole rat, a different long-lived and cancerfree rodent. The work was reported in the Wired and Nature blogs. Dr. Gorbunova…

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