On March 1, 2022, eBioMedicine published new research co-authored by several AFAR experts, including AFAR Board President James L. Kirkland, MD, PhD, and AFAR grantees Jamie N. Justice, PhD, Nicolas Musi, MD, Allyson Palmer, MD, PhD, and Marissa Schafer, PhD. Their research shows that senolytic drugs boost key protective proteins in both mice and humans. The study finds that therapeutics targeting senescent cells can decrease levels of a-klotho in three types of human cells while boosting the protein to protect older people against aspects of aging.
Dr. Justice is a 2016 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowships in Aging Research recipient, as well as an Assistant Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest University.
Dr. Kirkland is AFAR’s Board President, a 2012 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award recipient, and a 2020 Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction recipient. He is also a distinguished Professor of Medicine and Physiology, as well as the Director at the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.
Dr. Musi is a 2007 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging Scholar recipient. He is also the Director of the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, the Director of the Center for Healthy Aging, the Director of the San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Center, the Associate Director for Research Programs at San Antonio Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He is also co-leader of the Integrated Physiology of Aging Core at the Nathan Shock Center at UT Health San Antonio, one of the NIA’s six Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, for which AFAR serves as the Coordinating Center.
Dr. Palmer is a 2015 Glenn/AFAR Scholarships for Research in the Biology of Aging recipient, as well as a Geriatric Medicine Fellow at the Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Schafer is a 2016 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowships in Aging Research recipient, and an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Neurology at the Mayo Clinic.
Read the research, “Orally-active, clinically-translatable senolytics restore α-Klotho in mice and humans,” here.
Read a related press release here.
Learn more about advances in senolytics here.
