On November 6, 2024, AARP Bulletin magazine and website published an in-depth article on breakthroughs and advancements in aging research focused on extending healthspan and delaying age-related diseases. This piece featured insights from several AFAR experts including Scientific Director Steven Austad, PhD, President Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, Board Member Nir Barzilai, MD, and grantee Miranda Orr, PhD, as well as Cristofalo Award winner Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD, and Wright Award winners S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, and David Sinclair, PhD, A.O.
The article highlighted gerotherapeutics, the impact genetics could have on longevity research into biomarkers of aging. The experts also emphasized the positive effects of lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and social connectivity, on biological aging.
The article also spotlighted the upcoming AFAR-managed Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) Trial, which will research the impact of metformin to provide proof-of-concept that aging can be targeted like a disease.
Dr. Austad is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the founding director of UAB’s Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, and co-director of the UAB Integrative Center for Aging Research, as well as the Co-Principal Investigator of the Nathan Shock Centers Coordinating Center.
Dr. Barzilai is a 1997 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging scholar and 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, as well as the Co-Investigator of the AFAR SuperAgers Family Study, an AFAR Board Member, and author of Age Later: Health Span, Life Span and the New Science of Longevity. He also directs the Institute for Aging Research at the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research, and the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Dr. Niedernhofer is a Professor in The University of Minnesota Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics and the Director of the Institute on the Biology of Aging & Metabolism. 2018 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research recipient, as well as a recent AFAR Board Member.
Dr. Olshansky is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as the Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Lapetus Solutions, Inc.
Dr. Orr is a 2022 Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research recipient, as well as an associate professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine and of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Dr. Rando is a 2008 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient, and a 1999 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging recipient. He is also the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLAand a Professor of Neurology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at UCLA.
Dr. Sinclair is a 2000 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty recipient, and the 2018 Irving S. Wright Award recipient. He is also a Professor in the Department of Genetics at the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School.
Read the article with a subscription, “Medical Breakthroughs That Could Impact Aging,” here.
