Advancing Research
by funding Grant Programs and Fellowships
Driving Innovation
by guiding studies such as the FAST Initiative, the SuperAgers Initiative, and the TAME Trial
Furthering the Field
by supporting the infrastructure of three NIA Initiatives and leading the Amplifying Geroscience Initiative.
Top Breakthroughs driven by AFAR Experts
Delaying Disease by Targeting Aging
Saving Costs by Extending Healthspan
What are the Hallmarks of Aging?
What is Geroscience?
What is the Longevity Dividend?
There are no existing drugs that slow the onset or reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One promising approach to studying AD is to use brain cells generated in a dish from human pluripotent stem cells. This system allows scientists to perform research in human brain cells, to investigate genetic causes of AD and to study the changes that occur inside cells before they begin to die. However, age is the biggest risk factor for developing AD and, as it is not feasible to wait several decades for stem cell derived neurons to age in the dish before performing experiments, this approach does not factor in cellular age. To overcome this, Dr. Seurat aims to identify genes that regulate age in Alzheimer’s disease neurons and manipulate these genes to accelerate the aging process in a dish. This is significant because it will provide a novel way to understand the aging process in human brains. It will provide a new human platform to study how brain cells die in Alzheimer’s disease which may lead to the identification of new drug targets. And since age is an important factor in all neurodegenerative diseases, this study that could have impacts outside of AD.
