2019

Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty


AFAR Aakanksha Singhvi 2019 copy

Aakanksha Singhvi, PhD

Assistant Member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington

Molecular investigation of glial roles in neural aging

Why do most of us need glasses and hearing aids as we get older, and why do our mental acuities decline? Our brain has two types of cells in equal numbers, neurons and glia, which must constantly communicate with each other for normal nervous system activity. Dr. Singhvi’s lab wants to uncover how these glia-neuron conversations change during aging, and how glia contribute to age-related loss in sensory and cognitive abilities.
Dr. Singhvi's laboratory will use C. elegans to decipher mechanisms by which glia modulate neuron shape and functions, animal behavior and aging. It is hoped that the studies that are performed in this genetic system can help determine how glia impact sensorineural aging in molecular detail.

More 2019 Recipients of this Grant

Carlos Aguilar, PhD

Deconstructing stem cell aging through interact-omics

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Nausica Arnoult, PhD

DNA Double Strand Break repair pathway choice and repair fidelity during cellular and organismal aging

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Abigail Buchwalter, PhD

Defining drivers and consequences of ribosome biogenesis deregulation during mammalian aging

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Lindsay De Biase, PhD

Regional differences in microglial lysosome function: implications for microglial aging and cognitive decline

Lindsay De Biase
Brian DeBosch, MD, PhD

Activating the hepatic glucose fasting response to attenuate aging-related metabolic and autophagic defects

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Yarui Diao, PhD

Identification and application of cis-regulatory enhancer elements for muscle stem cell function and muscle regeneration in aging

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Sung Min Han, PhD

Identifying genes that regulate mitochondrial positioning at the synapse during aging

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Mark McCormick, PhD

Measurement of the conservation in mammalian cells of the effects of lifespan-extending tRNA synthetase inhibitors

Mark McCormick
Maria Mihaylova, PhD

Understanding the Effects of Dietary and Microbially Derived Metabolites on Gut Epithelial and Immune Cell Homeostasis During Aging

Maria Mihaylova
A. Hunter Shain, PhD

Somatic mutation burden and aging in human skin

A. Hunter Shain
Peter Sudmant, PhD

Ultra-sensitive profiling of cell-type specific age-associated somatic mitochondrial mutational diversity

Peter Sudmant
Ming Xu, PhD

Targeting p21high senescent cells to improve healthspan and lifespan

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George Sutphin, PhD

Understanding the interplay between tryptophan and NAD metabolism during aging

George Sutphin
Kapil Ramachandran, PhD

Contributions and mechanisms of neuroproteasomes to brain aging

Kapil Ramachandran