On July 9, 2019, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published an article co-authored by seven AFAR experts, mapping the need to prepare clinical investigators to conduct geroscience trials.
AFAR experts contributing to the article include:
Steven N. Austad, PhD: Dr. Austad is AFAR’s Scientific Director and a distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as Co Principle-Investigator of the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging Coordinating Center.
Nir Barzilai, MD: Dr. Barzilai is AFAR’s Deputy Scientific Director, a 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, a 1997 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging scholar, as well as the the Director at the Institute for Aging Research and a Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Harvey Jay Cohen, MD, PhD: Dr. Cohen is AFAR’s Immediate Past President and 2011 Centers of Excellence National Program Officer, as well as the Walter Kempner Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and the Director at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University.
James L. Kirkland, MD, PhD: Dr. Kirkland is AFAR’s president-elect, and a 2012 Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award 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.
Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD: Dr. Niedernhofer is a 2018 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research recipient, and a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota.
Robert J. Pignolo, MD, PhD: Dr. Pignolo is a 2002 Centers of Excellence Fellow, and a Professor of Medicine and Senior Associate Consultant for the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.
May J. Reed, MD: Dr. Reed is a 1991 and 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, a 1995 and 1996 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging scholar, as well as a Associate Professor of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Washington Medicine.
Their article posits the systemic reasons why there are currently so few clinical investigators conducting geroscience trials, and emphasizes the importance of funding research grantees and translational training programs.
Read “Creating the Next Generation of Translational Geroscientists” here.
Read an accompanying editorial by AFAR expert Dr. Thomas Gill – “Translational Geroscience: Challenges and Opportunities for Geriatric Medicine” – here.
