AFAR is pleased to announce the recipient of our 2024 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research, Bérénice Benayoun, PhD.
This award is named in honor of the late Dr. Cristofalo, who dedicated his career to aging research and to encouraging young scientists to investigate important problems in the biology of aging. Established in 2008, the award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000.
Dr. Benayoun is an Associate Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, and Molecular Medicine at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Her research focuses on big data, sex differences, and immune function in relation to aging; her lab’s overarching goal is to understand how genomic regulation mechanisms influence aging, health, and chronic disease, and how these mechanisms are modulated in response to environmental stimuli and in the context of specific endogenous factors, such as biological sex, in vertebrate model organisms. Ultimately, this research may discover novel target genes and pathways playing a role in healthy aging by leveraging the power of big data, or ‘omics’.
Dr. Benayoun has published 43 first-author and corresponding author original research papers in key high-impact journals, all of which have been extensively recognized and cited by other investigators. Notably, Dr. Benayoun has also been recognized with numerous grants and awards for her research, including the 2020 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty.
Dr. Benayoun will receive the Cristofalo Award at the American Aging Association (AGE) Annual Meeting on June 2 in Madison WI, where she will also present a lecture on her research titled "Sex-dimorphic regulation of macrophage aging in mice."
Learn more about what inspires her research in AFAR’s Ask the Expert interview here.
The Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award is one of AFAR’s four Annual Scientific Awards of Distinction. Learn more about the Cristofalo award and past recipients here.
Read a related press release on Dr. Benayoun’s Cristofalo Award here.
