AFAR is pleased to announce the recipient of our 2023 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research, Ming Xu, 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. Xu’s research focuses on cellular senescence, which is one of the major players contributing to the fundamental aging process. His lab is leveraging novel mouse models and human tissues as tools to examine the role and underlying mechanism of senescent cells in various diseases and aims to develop novel drugs to make people live longer and healthier and alleviate a range of diseases as a group by targeting senescent cells. In this way, his pioneering research is advancing the understanding of age-related disease mechanisms and revealing novel therapeutic targets to treat these conditions. His findings have also laid the foundation for a number of ongoing clinical trials on senolytics.
In addition to many co-authored publications, Dr. Xu has published six first author and five senior 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. Xu is a multiple AFAR grant recipient, most recently receiving the 2022 Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research.
Dr. Xu is an Assistant Professor at UConn Center on Aging and the Department of Genetics & Genome Sciences at UConn Health, as well a recipient of multiple AFAR grants including the 2017 Irene Diamond Fund/AFAR Postdoctoral Transition Awards in Aging, the 2019 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty, and the 2022 Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research.
The Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award is one of AFAR’s three annual Scientific Awards of Distinction. These awards will be presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in November 2023, where Dr. Xu will present a lecture on his research.
Learn more about the Cristofalo award and past recipients here.
Read a related press release about Dr. Xu’s award here.
