2015 Grant Recipients

AFAR Research Grants for Junior Faculty

Dena Dubal MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Francisco: Epigenetics of the X-Chromosome and Aging

Jenna Galloway, PhD, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital: Tendon cell homeostasis and stem cell activity during growth, adulthood and aging in the mouse

W. Mike Henne, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Novel ER-lysosome inter-organelle tethers in lipid metabolism and aging

Derek Huffman, PhD, Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Restoration of aged intestinal stem cell function by exposure to a young environment

Adam Hughes, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Utah: Dissecting the role of the lysosome in organismal aging

Dudley Lamming, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Sexual dimorphism in response to longevity interventions

Louis Lapierre, PhD, Assistant Professor, Brown University: Study of the role of lipoprotein biogenesis in autophagy regulation and lifespan determination

Sergiy Libert, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cornell University: Genetic determination of the rate of aging and susceptibility to diseases of aging in different breeds of dogs

Ashley Webb, PhD, Assistant Professor, Brown University: Preservation of adult neural stem cells by the pro-longevity FOXO3 transcription factor during aging

Omer Yilmaz MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Dietary and epigenetic control of the intestinal stem cell niche in aging

New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer's Disease

Todd Cohen, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Novel Post-translational Mechanisms that Mediate Neurodegeneration in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Jason Hinman, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles: Development of a Novel Mouse Model of Mixed Vascular and Alzheimer's Dementia

Manu Sharma, PhD, Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine: Tau Proteostasis by Hsc70 Co-Chaperones

Marc Vermulst, PhD, Assistant Professor, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Transcription errors in Alzheimer's disease

Alon Zaslaver, PhD, Senior Lecturer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Synaptic failure in AD during aging-associated proteostasis collapse

Glenn/AFAR Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG)

David Marcinek, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Washington Medical Center: Mitochondrial oxidative stress alters aged muscle function through oxidation of the thiol proteome

David Sabatini MD, PhD, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Reversing age-associated deterioration in intestinal stem and niche cells by targeting the mTORC1 and PPARo signaling pathways

Julie Martin Mid-career Awards in Aging Research

Derrick Rossi, PhD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School/Children's Hospital Boston: Resetting the epigenomic landscape and functional capacity of aged hematopoietic stem cells via transcription-factor mediated reprogramming

David Walker, PhD, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles: Mid-life modifications of mitochondrial fission/fusion that slow aging: molecular mechanisms to pharmacological treatments

Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research

Stacie Deiner, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Neurosurgery and Geriatric & Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Optimizing postoperative cognition in the elderly

Raquel Gardner, MD, Assistant Professor, University of California, San Francisco: Traumatic Brain Injury and The Aging Brain: Predictors of Clinical Trajectories

Katherine Gifford, MA, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Cognitive Complaints in Aging Adults

May Hua, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Columbia University: Determinants of Critical Care Intensity for Hospitalized Older Adults: the Effect of Hospital-based Palliative Care Services

Makoto Ishii, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College: Pathobiology of Hypothalamic and Metabolic Dysfunction in Normal Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

Dae Hyun Kim, MD, MPH, ScD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital: Development and Validation of a Frailty Index Using Claims Data for Pharmacoepidemiologic Studies in Older Adults

Sofiya Milman, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Einstein College of Medicine: Effect of longevity genomes on the GH/IGF-1 phenotype and disease-free survival

Beeson CARDI Fellows

Claire McEvoy, MPhil, PhD, Fellow, Queen's University Belfast: Mediterranean diet and cognitive decline - strengthening the evidence base and encouraging behaviour change

Matthew O'Connell, PhD, Fellow, Trinity College Dublin: Novel physiological determinants of functional decline across Ireland

Glenn/AFAR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for Translational Research on Aging

Dov Ballak, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Colorado at Boulder: Interleukin-37 as a Novel Treatment for Inflamm-aging

Marco De Cecco, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Brown University: Activation of retrotransposable elements in cellular senescence: new therapeutic targets to prevent cell-intrinsic initiation of autoimmunity

Hongqing Du, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine: Developing Novel Approaches to Extend Muscle Healthspan

Neha Garg, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Harvard University: The role of the relocation of chromatin modifying proteins in aging

David Gate, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University, Role of microglia in brain rejuvenation

Emily Goldberg, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University: Impact of ketone metabolites on age-related inflammation

Woojin Han, MSE, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Tech: Hydrogels for Skeletal Muscle Regeneration in Young and Aging Mice

Jerome Mertens, PhD, Research Associate, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Using human, age-equivalent directly induced neurons to study nucleo-cytoplasmic compartmentalization in human aging and Alzheimer's disease

Reyhan Westbrook, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University: The Identification and Translation of Novel Metabolic Findings in the Aging Chronically Inflammed Interleukin-10tm1Cgn Mouse

Lynda Wilmott, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Tennessee Health Science Center: Novel drug discovery method identifies KCNH3 as an Alzheimer's Disease therapeutic target

Glenn/AFAR Scholarships for Research in the Biology of Aging

Ishrat Ahmed, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Inositol polyphosphate multikinase: a novel regulator of adult hippocampal neurogenesis

Nathan Basisty, University of Washington: Reversal of Cardiac Aging with Rapamycin Treatment: Characterizing the Beneficial Role of Ubiquitin Mediated Homeostasis

LaShardai Brown, Medical University of South Carolina: The aging ear: Macrophage dysfunction in auditory nerve degeneration

Wei-Sheng Chen, Tufts University, Targeting integrin-mediated YAP activation to treat glaucoma

Ignacio Guerrero-Ros, Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy and T Cell Immunoscenscence

Hanzhi Luo, University of California, Berkeley: Molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell aging

Sarah Neuner, University of Tennessee Health Science Center: Identification of Genetic Modifiers of Neuronal Deficits and Memory Failure in Alzheimer's Disease

Felicia Ooi, University of Iowa: Uncovering mechanisms by which the neurosensory release of serotonin (5-HT) regulates the Heat Shock Response (HSR) in Caenorhabditis elegans

Allyson Palmer, Mayo Clinic: Clearing Senescent Cells as Therapy for Diabetic Complicaitons in db/db Mice

Mihir Vohra, University of California, San Francisco: The Kynurenine Pathway as a Regulator of Neural Functions in Aging

Caiyue Xu, University of Pennsylvania: Investigation of Sirtuin Loss During Aging

Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program

Samah Ahmed, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Mohammad Ali, University of Texas Medical Branch

Fazila Aseem, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Nicholas Ashur, Georgetown University

Sophie Austin, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University

David Bailey, University of Hawaii

Jaya Batra, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Saumya Bhutani, Stony Brook University School of Medicine

Christine Binkley, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio

Samara Bliss, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Carisa Bohnak, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Matthew Bohr, Medical College of Wisconsin

Marielle Bolano, University of California, Davis

Theron Bowman, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Eric Bready, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Vincent Brinker, Baylor College of Medicine

Jeffrey Brow, University of New England

Shirley Chan, University of California, San Francisco

Stephen Chan, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Neha Chandra, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Le Chang, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Pin-Wen Chen, Saint Louis University School of Medicine

Cathy Chen, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Justin Cheng, University of Hawaii

Brian Connolly, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Seth Cope, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Lisa Deng, University of California, San Francisco

Laura Desrochers, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Peter Domenig, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Ashley Dougherty, Wake Forest University School of Medicine

Siena Duarte, University of California, San Francisco

Diane Dy, University of Washington

Yetunde Fatade, Drexel University College of Medicine

Elizabeth Ferreira, University of Hawaii

Stephen Foster, University of Arkansas

Linna Guan, Case Western Reserve University

Albert Ha, Harvard Medical School

Jared Hara, University of Hawaii

Brianna Harder, University of Nebraska Medical Center

John Paul Harris, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Abida Hasan, University of Texas Medical Branch

Brendan Heiden, University of Michigan

Kevin Heinze, University of Michigan

Reuben Hendler, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Megan Hermann, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Liam Hilson, University of Hawaii

Kathryn Hu, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Imikomobong Ibia, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Olivia Ishibashi, University of California, Los Angeles

Leslie James, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Sami Kabbara, University of Arizona College of Medicine

Sasha Kapil, University of Nebraska

Patrick Kelley, Brown University

Antigone Kithas, University of Utah

Sai Krishna Korada, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Diana Lam, Ohio State University

Brendan Langford, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Andrew Lawson, University of Washington

Wendi LeBrett, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Roxanne Lee, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Matthew Lelegren, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Marcia Leung, University of Hawaii

Emily Leven, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Sarah Levy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Anna Liang, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Amy Lin, University of Southern California

Jonathan Lin, University of Rochester

James Linden, University of Hawaii

Michael Liu, University of Arizona

Jordan Lockhart, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Calixto-Hope Lucas, Jr., University of California, San Francisco

Courtney Maloney, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Samantha Mayhew, University of Cincinnati

Melanie Mercer, Medical College of Wisconsin

Marina Mikhael, University of Michigan

Jacob Moran, University of Texas Medical Branch

Victoria Moreira, Medical College of Georgia

Scott Morin, University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

Subham Neupane, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Bao-Thang Nguyen, Weill Cornell Medical College

Tu Nguyen, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Surabhi Nirkhe, University of Washington

Laura Pape, Saint Louis University School of Medicine

William Perry, University of Michigan

Lauren Pollack, Columbia University

Margaret Puelle, University of Michigan

Mariel Pullman, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Pooja Rajguru, University of Arizona

Yesenia Ramos, University of Washington

Nithin Ravi, University of Michigan

Thomas Rayner, University of Utah

Luis Romero, Weill Cornell Medical College

Sonia Sajja, Eastern Virginia Medical School

Reith Sarkar, University of California, San Diego

Harshika Satyarthi, Temple University School of Medicine

Dhara Shah, Eastern Virginia Medical School

Haikoo Shah, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Marika Shahid, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Eric Silberman, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Rachel Sluder, University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

Ashley Surles, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Zhaoyi Tang, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Elizabeth Tarras, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Ngoc Tran, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Carla Velarde, University of Rochester

Joshua Waytz, University of Chicago

Marc Weinberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Brent Weiser, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Natalie Wong, Weill Cornell Medical College

Katharine Wong, University of Hawaii

Eric Wu, University of Hawaii

Kevin Xu, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Menaka Yadav, University of North Texas Health Science Center

Chloe Yuan, University of Hawaii

Emily Zagorski, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine

Senmiao Zhan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Julia Zhang, University of Hawaii

Yayu Zhong, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Robert Zimbroff, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai