Assistant Professor of Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine
Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research - 2022
What inspired you to pursue aging research?
I became interested in aging research during medical school where I studied corneal wound healing and aging during my MD-PhD training. My mentors (including Dr. Laura Niedernhofer, 2018 AFAR Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award recipient) during that period inspired me to continue my passion for aging research. Now as a plastic surgeon-scientist, I have observed the significant impact that age has on delayed wound healing in older adults. My patients inspire me to discover reversible and/or preventable mechanisms that delay healing and tissue repair.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean for you to receive an AFAR grant now?
It is an absolute privilege for me to receive AFAR support to pursue my interests in aging research. I feel incredibly honored to be selected for the Hevolution/New Investigator Award and be a part of the amazing network of aging researchers that the AFAR has built. In my opinion, AFAR is a leading aging research organization and those that have been recognized for scientific awards are among the top aging scientists in the world.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
I believe that senescence is a fundamental driver of both normal and delayed wound healing states and my research aims to determine mechanisms by which senescence governs wound repair. Identifying the key differences between chronic and acute senescence states and how they are regulated is critical to the field. Despite many negative facets of cellular senescence, I believe that it will be possible to engineer the youthful transient and precise wound senescence response to promote and improve upon tissue repair and wound healing in aging.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
Despite the negative associations of cellular senescence with aging and age-related disease, senescent cells can actually have profoundly beneficial roles in healing our wounds. My research if focused on determining which specific senescent cells perform beneficial functions in wound healing and if they could be utilized to improve delays in healing that occur in aging.
