What inspired you to pursue aging research?
In addition to being a researcher, I’m a clinician specializing in the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Age is the biggest risk factor for developing these diseases. I began to pursue aging research because I believe that understanding how our brains change with age may give insight into the causes of these devastating conditions. In addition, some of my patients have age-related cognitive changes, but not neurodegenerative conditions. I hope that my research will help these patients as well, by helping us understand this “normal” cognitive aging.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean, for you, to receive an AFAR grant now?
Much of aging research is disease-focused. While this is incredibly important, there is also a need to understand healthy aging because in order to fix a disease, we must first understand the context in which it occurs. AFAR helps meet this need. In addition to supporting age-related disease-focused research, AFAR supports biomedical research into normal aging. As an early career researcher, this AFAR grant will help me to generate valuable data in the field of aging at a critical time in my career.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
The molecular mechanisms underlying normal cognitive aging are not well studied and my lab has generated exciting preliminary data suggesting that the pathways we study are important to this process. My research may thus improve our understanding of why cognitive function declines with age, which will allow us to target these pathways to help improve normal aging. It may also provide insight into the mechanisms of age-related diseases of the brain.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
My research is focused on one of the body’s mechanisms for keeping its cells uncluttered and in good working condition. I study how that process becomes less efficient with age, and if improving the function of that process can help keep brain cells acting young.
