On June 12, 2018, Popular Science spotlighted innovative interventions to extend healthspan including the Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) Trial, rapamycin, senolytic agents, and NAD + molecules. These research strategies are driven by a range of AFAR experts, as featured in the article:
• AFAR Deputy Scientific Director, 1997 Beeson Scholar and 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, Nir Barzilai, M.D.
• 2007 Glenn/AFAR Breaktroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D.
• 2012 Glenn/AFAR Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient and President-elect James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D.
• 2000 AFAR Research Grant recipient and Board member David Sinclair, Ph.D.
The article, “Bill Faloon has pursued immortality for decades. Now he’s got lots of company. What does science have to say?” challenges the common misconception that the field of aging research is pursuing immortality. AFAR experts share their evidence-based research that is poised to move from the labs into our lives and help us live healthier for longer as we grow older.
First, the article highlights the Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) Trial, which is led by Dr. Barzilai and managed by AFAR. Dr. Barzilai notes that while metformin has already been used for decades safely on diabetes patients, the drug will do “more to alleviate damage in an aging cell than it does for improving glucose metabolism.”
Next, the article also features Dr. Kaeberlein’s research on rapamycin’s potential to mimic the benefits of caloric restriction and in turn extend health as we age.
Further, Dr. Kirkland’s promising research on senescence cells and progress with clinical trials to test senolytic agents in humans is also highlighted in the article.
Lastly, the article explores Dr. Sinclair’s work with NAD+ molecules, which he notes may be "the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth.”
Read the full article here.
Nir Barzilai, M.D. is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research and the Director of the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Biology of Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic.
Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D. is the Co-Director, University of Washington Medicine Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and Director, Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute.
David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., is a Professor of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard Medical School.
