What inspired you to pursue aging research?
I am very interested by the fundamental nature of aging, that it is a process that impacts essentially every part of our biology. I’m particularly fascinated by the fact that our body seems to already have a solution to overcome the challenges of aging when creating the next generation. This fact drives me to understand those existing solutions to understand why they don’t already function to prevent aging, and to potentially harness them ourselves to lessen the effects of aging.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean, for you, to receive an AFAR grant now?
I think of AFAR as an organization that identifies and supports the leaders of aging research, particularly those developing exciting innovative approaches to solve aging problems. This support leads to breakthroughs that help everyone have longer, healthier lives. It is a huge honor to be included among those researchers that AFAR supports, and inspires me to continue pursuing innovating aging research.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
For a long time, my research topic has been thought to be a potential major molecular source of aging symptoms, but has been very difficult to experimentally study. I’m really excited by the possibility of my project to make researching this topic much more accessible, enhancing our understanding of its role in aging, and empowering completely new avenues for therapeutic intervention.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
Our genomes have certain “weak points” that are particularly sensitive, experiencing changes, or even being eliminated, over time. The instability of some particularly important weak points is thought to be a major factor contributing to aging symptoms. These genomic regions are specialy protected, or in some cases restored, in our reproductive cells so that a healthy genome can be passed on to our children. My research is focused on understanding how this protection occurs in these cells so that we may be able stimulate their activity in the rest of the body to strengthen these weak points during aging.
