Associate Professor, University of California, San Francisco
McKnight Brain Research Foundation Innovator Awards in Cognitive Aging and Memory Loss - 2021
What inspired you to pursue aging research?
My interest in the fields of aging and rejuvenation is grounded in my fascination with development and tissue plasticity. The initial spark that led me to this field came as an undergraduate when I first learned about the discovery of the Spemann organizer. In this study, performed almost 100 years ago, scientists transplanted a small portion of a newt embryo onto another and induced organismal changes that resulted in the formation of a twin embryo. This fundamental concept that organismal changes could be influenced by inter-tissue interactions has molded my research program. Could latent plasticity remaining at old age mirror plasticity observed in development to rejuvenate aging tissues?
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean, for you, to receive an AFAR grant now?
AFAR serves as both the nexus and launching pad for the biology of aging research field. AFAR provides a mechanism in which innovative and oftentimes high-risk high-reward research is supported at the very early stages. To me, receiving an AFAR grant represents both validation and encouragement to pursue areas of research in which we seek to develop therapeutics that can treat cognitive decline in the aging brain by targeting molecular mechanisms of aging in blood independent of the brain itself.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
The proposed research aims to challenge long-standing views of brain aging as a rigid process, by identifying caloric restriction-induced blood factors as molecular targets to delay and potentially reverse age-related cognitive decline. The ability to counter brain aging through blood-based therapeutic interventions could enable the mitigation of vulnerability to dementia-related disorders in the elderly, fulfilling an unmet need that is growing more pressing as the human population ages.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
My research is focused on understanding what drives functional and cognitive impairments in the aging brain, and importantly how the effects of aging can be reversed in the old brain. We focus our investigations on the beneficial effects of systemic interventions - including young blood administration, exercise, and caloric restriction – in animal models of brain aging. Our goal is to identify therapeutic targets in blood to prevent, ameliorate and reverse dementia-related neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly.
AFAR turned 40 in 2021. What is your vision for the next 40 years of healthy aging?
I turned 40 in 2021 too! My vision for the next 40 years of healthy aging involves the translation of lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and caloric restriction, into tractable therapeutic targets that can not only delay but restore function late in life. Given the unique trajectory for each aging individual, I believe decoding broad lifestyle interventions into combinatorial sets of molecular targets will enable a personalized medicine approach in which individual hallmarks of aging specific to each person can be ameliorated.
