 | Jay M. Edelberg, Ph. D.
Cornell University | | Regulation of Senescent Angiogenic Potential
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
The incidence of ischemic heart disease increases with advancing age. Unfortunately, the physiologic response to cardiac myocardial ischemia, the angiogenic development of new blood vessels, is decreased in the elderly population as demonstrated by both clinical and experimental studies.
The focus of our laboratory is to understand the... (more) (Dr. Edelberg withdrew from this award after the first year to accept a Beeson Award.) |
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Jeffrey S. Friedman, Ph. D.
Scripps Research Institute | | The Role of p66shc in Cellular Senescence and Mammalian Aging
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
The adapter protein Shc, which couples mitogenic signals from cell surface receptors through the Ras/MAPK pathway, has recently been implicated as a determinant of mammalian longevity, as mice harboring a targeted knockout of p66shc live 30% longer than control littermates. In addition to long life,... (more)(Dr. Friedman conducted the first 2 years of this research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Research for year 3 was conducted at New York University and year 4 at Scripps Research Institute.) |
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 | Wen-Biao Gan, Ph. D.
Skirball Institute - New York University School of Medicine | | In Vivo Study of Age-related Changes in Synaptic Structure
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Changes in synaptic structure are not just a developmental phenomenon but take place throughout the lifetime of the nervous system. While synaptic rearrangements are likely to play pivotal roles in long-term memory and functional recovery after nerve injury, loss of synapses in the elderly has been shown to correlate directly with decline... (more) |
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Mike Hutton, Ph. D.
Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville | | In Vivo Analysis of the Role of Tau in Neurodegeneration.
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
No further information available at this time. |
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 | David K. Orren, Ph. D.
University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center | | Understanding the Role of Genomic Instability in Human Aging: The Paradigm of the Premature Aging Disease Werner Syndrome
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Throughout life, our DNA is constantly subject to damage from both environmental agents and endogenous reactive oxygen species. Due to incomplete repair of this damage, changes in DNA accumulate in each cell as time passes. Such changes (mutations) are known to have a role in... (more) |
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 | Jeff J. Sekelsky, Ph. D.
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill | | Functional Characterization of a Drosophila RecQ Helicase
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Genome instability has long been proposed to be a major factor in the aging process. The contribution of genome instability to aging is underscored by the finding that several of the segmental progeroid syndromes, which are characterized by early onset of conditions normally associated with aging, are associated with genome instability. Two... (more) |
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 | Hong-Bing Shu, Ph. D.
National Jewish Medical Center | | Signaling by Tumor Necrosis Factor Family Members
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
The majority of patients with cancer in the United States are more than 70 years old and cancer has been regarded as a disease of aging. Aging-related decline of the immune response has also been well documented. Our long-term goals are to identify molecular targets for drug development against cancer and immunological diseases.
Tumor... (more) |
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 | James E. Sligh, M.D., Ph. D.
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | | Altered Mitochondrial Function in Transgenic Models of Cutaneous Aging
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Mitochondria are the organelles within cells that are responsible
for generating much of the required energy for cell survival.
Mitochondria have their own DNA (mtDNA) which encodes
some of the necessary proteins to carry out these biochemical
reactions. Recently, there has been an increased interest in
mitochondria as... (more) |
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Peiqing Sun, Ph. D.
Scripps Research Institute | | A Genetic Approach to Identification of Genes Involved in Cellular Senescence and Immortalization
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
One major advance in the study of mammalian aging was the
discovery made by Hayflick in the 1960's. He observed that
normal human cells had a finite lifespan in vitro and could execute
only a limited number of cell divisions. Beyond this limit, cells
undergo an irreversible growth arrest... (more) |
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 | Marc Tatar, Ph.D.
Brown University | | Neuroendocrine Regulation of Aging in Drosophila
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Senescence is the result of deteriorated somatic function that leads to age-dependent increase of
mortality rate. Senescence is not an evolutionary adaptation, but its rate of progress can be subject to
adaptive selection, as must be the case given ubiquitous species variation for longevity. Remarkably, the
potential rate of senescence can also... (more) |
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 | Anthony D. Wagner, Ph. D.
Stanford University | | Age-related Changes in the Functional Neurobiology of Memory
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
Memory is crucial for many aspects of human behavior, from day-to-day behaviors, such as remembering to take medications, to more fundamental cognitive abilities, such as reasoning and problem solving. The centrality of memory for these and other cognitive behaviors is too often painfully evident when memory fails due to... (more)(Research for the first 3 years was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ) |
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 | Hui Zheng, Ph. D.
Baylor College of Medicine | | An Inducible Gene Knockout System for Alzheimer's Disease and Aging Research
2000 New Scholar Award in Aging
The transgenic and gene knockout technology has proved to be a powerful system to elucidate in vivo functions of target genes and to establish mouse models of human diseases. However, the conventional approach introduces modifications in mouse germline, which may lead to adverse effects or may be fully... (more) |
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