Editorial Board
Editors-in-Chief
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Mikhail V. Blagosklonny
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA -
Vera Gorbunova
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA -
David A. Sinclair
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA -
Jan Vijg
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA -
Judith Campisi
(1948-2024)
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA
Dr. Blagosklonny is author of over 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is Associate Editor of Cell Death Differentiation, Cancer Biology Therapy and served on Editorial Board of Cancer Research, Autophagy, International J Cancer, Am J Pathology, PLOS ONE and is founding and current (for 15 years) Editor-in-Chief of Cell Cycle. His research interests range from molecular and cellular biology to clinical investigations and include signal transduction, cell cycle, cellular senescence, anticancer therapeutics with emphasis on translation of basic science into new anticancer strategies. He extended the study of signal transduction pathways from cancer to aging, revealing potential targets for slowing down aging and age-related diseases.
Doris Johns Cherry Professor; Professor of Biology; Associate Professor of Oncology, Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
David A.Sinclair, Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of the Glenn Laboratories for Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Dr. Sinclair obtained a BSc (1st class honors) and a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. From 1995-1999, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Lenny Guarente at M.I.T. Dr. Sinclair has received awards including The Australian Commonwealth Prize, a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Award, a Leukemia Society Fellowship, a Ludwig Scholarship, a Harvard-Armenise Fellowship, an American Association for Aging Research Fellowship, and a Fellowship and Senior Scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation.
Jan Vijg, Ph.D., Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, USA Jan Vijg, Ph.D., is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1987. From 1990 to 1993 he was founder and Scientific Director of Ingeny B.V., a Dutch Biotechnology company. In 1993 he moved to Boston, to take up a position as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1998 he accepted an offer from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, to become a Professor in the Department of Physiology. From 2006 to 2008 he was a Professor at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California. With his research team he was the first to develop transgenic mouse models for studying mutagenesis in vivo (in 1989) and used these models ever since in studying the relationship between damage to the genome and aging. He has published over 200 scientific articles and is inventor or co-inventor on 8 patents.
We are saddened to announce the death of Aging Founding Editor, Judy Campisi, who passed on January 19, 2024. Dr. Campisi (1948-2024) was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and recipient of several awards, including two MERIT awards from the National Institute of Aging, the Olav Thon Foundation Prize and the Ipsen Foundation Longevity Prize. We all will remember Dr. Campisi for her passion in pursuing groundbreaking research that established cellular senescence as a key process in cancer and aging.
Judith Campisi, Ph.D., Professor, Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, CA, USA Dr. Campisi received a Ph.D. from the State University of New York Stony Brook and postdoctoral training at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. She was Assistant and Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the Boston University Medical School, and joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as Senior Scientist in 1991. In 2002, she moved part of her laboratory to the then newly-founded Buck Institute for Age Research. Campisi's work bridges the fields of cancer and aging, and includes contributions to understanding the evolution and mechanisms of tumor suppressor genes, the cellular damage responses of senescence and apoptosis, DNA repair mechanisms, telomere biology, and the role of genome maintenance in postponing aging and cancer. She has published >150 research papers, review articles and book chapters on her work, and has received several awards for her research. Her awards include a Cancer Scholar award from the American Cancer Society, Established Investigator award from the American Heart Association, two MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging, a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Irving Wright Award from the American Federation for Aging Research and Glenn Foundation Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Campisi serves or has served on numerous national and international scientific review panels, public and private scientific advisory panels, and the editorial boards of several scientific journals. Web links: http://www.lbl.gov/lifesciences http://www.Buckinstitute.org
Editorial Board Members
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Frederick Alt
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA -
Vladimir Anisimov
Petrov Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia -
Peter Attia
Attia Medical, PC, Austin, TX, USA -
Johan Auwerx
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland -
Andrzej Bartke
Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL, USA -
Nir Barzilai
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA -
Elizabeth H. Blackburn
University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA -
Maria Blasco
Spanish National Cancer Center, Madrid, Spain -
Vilhelm A. Bohr
National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA -
William M. Bonner
National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA -
Robert M. Brosh, Jr.
National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA -
Anne Brunet
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA -
Rafael de Cabo
NIA, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA -
Irina Conboy
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA -
Ronald A. DePinho
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA -
Jan van Deursen
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA -
Sergey Dmitriev
Boston, MA, USA -
Lawrence A. Donehower
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA -
Toren Finkel
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA -
Luigi Fontana
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA -
Claudio Franceschi
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy -
Evgeniy Galimov
Artificial Intelligence For Life Sciences CIC, London, UK / Imperial College Health Partners, London, UK -
Lorenzo Galluzzi
Weill Cornell Medical College, NY, NY, USA -
David Gems
Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, UK -
Vadim Gladyshev
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA -
Myriam Gorospe
National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA -
Leonard Guarente
MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA -
Andrei Gudkov
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA -
Katerina Gurova
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA -
Michael Hall
University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland -
Philip Hanawalt
Stanford University, CA, USA -
Nissim Hay
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA -
Siegfried Hekimi
McGill University, Montreal, Canada -
Stephen L. Helfand
Brown University, Providence, RI, USA -
Jan H.J. Hoeijmakers
Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands -
Steve Horvath
University of California, Los Angeles, CA -
Stephen P. Jackson
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK -
Heinrich Jasper
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA -
Pankaj Kapahi
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA -
Jan Karlseder
The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA -
Cynthia Kenyon
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA -
James L. Kirkland
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA -
Guido Kroemer
INSERM, Paris, France -
Titia de Lange
Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA -
Arnold Levine
The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA -
Michael P. Lisanti
University of Salford, Salford, UK -
Lawrence A. Loeb
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA -
Valter Longo
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA -
Gerry Melino
University of Rome, Rome, Italy -
Simon Melov
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA -
Alexey Moskalev
Komi Science Center of RAS, Syktyvkar, Russia -
Masashi Narita
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK -
Andre Nussenzweig
National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA -
William C. Orr
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA -
Thomas Rando
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA -
Michael Ristow
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland -
Igor B. Roninson
Ordway Research Institute, Albany, NY, USA -
Michael R. Rose
University of California, Irvine, CA, USA -
K Lenhard Rudolph
Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany -
David M. Sabatini
Whitehead Institute/MIT/HHMI, Cambridge, MA, USA -
Alberto Sanz
University of Glasgow, UK -
John Sedivy
Brown University, Providence, RI, USA -
Manuel Serrano
Spanish National Cancer Research Center, Madrid, Spain -
Gerald S. Shadel
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA -
Norman E. Sharpless
Director of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA -
Vladimir P. Skulachev
Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia -
Clemens Steegborn
University of Bayreuth, Germany -
George Thomas
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA -
Jonathan L. Tilly
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA -
John Tower
University of Southern California, LA, CA, USA -
Eric Verdin
University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA -
Gen Sheng Wu
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA -
Thomas von Zglinicki
Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK -
Alex Zhavoronkov
Insilico Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Frederick W. Alt, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Alt is also Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Inst., Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics, HMS, Scientific Director, CBRI Institute for Biomedical Research. Fred Alt received a PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of He is the recipient of the 2003 Excellence in Mentoring Award from the American Association of Immunologists and the 2004 Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association of Cancer Research. Editorial Boards: Mol. and Cell. Biology; Advances in Immunology;
Vladimir N. Anisimov, M.D., Ph.D., DSc., Professor, N.N.Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia
Professor Vladimir N. Anisimov, Chief, Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Aging (since 1987) and Head, Department of Carcinogenesis and Oncogerontology (since 1998) at the the N.N.Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia. Research interests include relationship between aging and cancer, modifying factors of carcinogenesis, experimental gerontology. Since 1994 he is the president, the Gerontological Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author and co-author of 16 monographs, including "Carcinogenesis and Aging", vol. 1 and 2, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1987, and "Molecular and Physiological Mechanisms of Aging", Nauka, St.Petersburg, 2003, more than 350 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Peter Attia, M.D., attended Stanford University School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. Attia spent five years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland as a general surgery resident. He spent two years at the National Cancer Institute at NIH as a Surgical Oncology Fellow. Dr. Attia joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in the Palo Alto office as a Member of the Corporate Risk Practice and Healthcare Practice. In 2014, Dr. Attia founded Attia Medical, PC, a medical practice focusing on the applied science of longevity.
Johan Auwerx, MD, PhD, Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; CH-1015 Lausanne, SwitzerlandJohan Auwerx received his M.D. in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Molecular Endocrinology in 1989 at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He is a certified clinical specialist in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition and is currently professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he heads a research group together with Dr. Schoonjans (click here to see the press release on prof. Auwerx' appointment). Johan Auwerx is internationally known as an expert in metabolic diseases, molecular biology, and mouse molecular genetics. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of the peroxisome proliferation activated receptors into drugs, which now are commonly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. He furthermore was amongst the first scientists to recognize the impact of the sirtuins and SRC/p160 gene family on metabolic homeostasis, suggesting that cofactors are valid targets to treat metabolic diseases. Dr. Auwerx spearheaded a unique large mouse phenogenomics program and was the director of the Strasbourg Mouse Clinical Institute from 2006 to 2008. Prof. Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003. He is a member of editorial boards of Cell, Cell Metabolism, EMBO J and EMBO Rep.
Andrzej Bartke, Ph.D, Professor, SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA
Andrzej Bartke received Master's degree in Biology in his native Poland in 1962 and Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Kansas in 1965. He held various positions including chairmanship of Physiology Department at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine between 1984 and 2002. During most of his career, his research was in the area of endocrinology of reproduction with particular emphasis on the role of prolactin in the male, effects of hyperprolactinemia, and effects of altered growth hormone signaling on female and male reproductive functions. During the last 10 years, most of his work concerned the genetic and hormonal control of aging, use of long-lived mutants in aging research and interaction of caloric restriction with longevity genes. He published approx. 500 research papers and approx. 100 review articles and book chapters and served as President of the American Society of Andrology, Society for the Study of Reproduction and American Aging Association.
Nir Barzilai, M.D., The Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research; Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Director of Institute for Aging Research, Einstein's Nathan Shock Center of excellence in the biology of aging, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx NY
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciences, Lasker Award recipient, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research and discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase. Throughout her career, Dr. Blackburn has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. These include the Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988), the National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology (1990), and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Yale University (1991). She was a Harvey Society Lecturer at the Harvey Society in New York (1990), and the recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award (1995), the Australia Prize (1998), the Harvey Prize (1999), the Keio Prize (1999), American Association for Cancer Research-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000), American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001), E.B.Wil son Award of the American Society for Cell Biology (2001), 26th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research (2003), and the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004), Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack Szostak), Genetics Prize from the Peter Gruber Foundation (2006), Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2007) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Joseph G. Gall), L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008), Mike Hogg Award (2009). She was named California Scientist of the Year in 1999, elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology for the year 1998, and served as a Board member of the Genetics Society of America (2000-2002). Dr. Blackburn is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000). She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000.Dr. Blackburn is a faculty member in the PIBS (Program in Biological Sciences) and BMS (Biomedical Sciences) graduate Ph.D. programs at UCSF, and a Program Member of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Maria Blasco, PhD, Professor, Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Madrid, SpainMaria A. Blasco obtained her PhD in 1993 for her research on DNA polymerases at the Centro de Biología Molecular (Madrid) under the supervision of M. Salas. That same year, Blasco joined the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, (USA), under the leadership of C. W. Greider. During this time, Blasco cloned one of the mammalian telomerase genes and generated the first telomerase knockout mouse. In 1997 she returned to Spain to start her own research group at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (Madrid), where she continued her work on the development of mouse models for the study of telomerase in cancer and ageing. She moved to the CNIO in 2003 as Director of the Molecular Oncology Program and Leader of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group. Blasco has received the Swiss Bridge Award for Research in Cancer, the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award, the EMBO Gold Medal, the Rey Jaime I Basic Research Award and the Körber European Science Award. She is an elected EMBO Member since 2000 and a member of the Academia Europaea since 2006. She was appointed to the EMBO Council in 2008.
Vilhelm A. Bohr, MD, PhD, Chief, Molecular Gerontology Branch, Biomedical Research Center, National Institute on Aging, NIH
Dr. Bohr received his M.D. in 1978, Ph.D. in 1987, and D.Sc. in 1987 from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. After training in neurology and infectious diseases at the University Hospital in Copenhagen, Dr. Bohr did a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Hans Klenow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He then worked with Dr. Philip Hanawalt at Stanford University as a research scholar from 1982-1986. In 1986 he was appointed to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as an investigator, becoming a tenured Senior Investigator in 1988. Dr. Bohr developed a research section in DNA repair at the NCI. In 1992 he moved to the NIA to become Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, renamed Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology in February 2001. Dr. Bohr is the Editor-in-Chief of Mechanisms of Ageing and Development.
William M. Bonner Ph.D., Head, Chromatin Structure and Function Group, Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, DHHS NIH NCI CCR, Bethesda, MD, USA Dr. Bonner received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This was followed by postdoctoral studies at Oxford University and the MRC Laboratories in Cambridge, England. While at Cambridge, he became interested in histones and continued this work when he arrived at the NIH in 1974 as a Staff Fellow in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Two years later he moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology in NCI. In 1980 he identified two specialized variants of the histone H2A family, which were given the names of H2AX and H2AZ. Continuing his work on various aspects of histone metabolism during the 1980s and early 90s, he uncovered in 1998 the relationship between DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) and the phosphorylated form of histone H2AX, named γ-H2AX.
Robert M. Brosh, Jr., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, NIH Biomedical Research Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
Dr. Robert Brosh is a Senior Investigator at the National Institute on Aging, NIH and is the Chief of the Section on DNA Helicases in the Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology. Dr. Brosh earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1996), his M.S. in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University (1988), and his B.S. in Chemistry from Bethany College (1985). He conducted postdoctoral training at the National Institute on Aging, NIH Laboratory of Molecular Genetics before assuming Principal Investigator at NIA in 2000. He became a tenured Senior Investigator in 2006. Dr. Brosh's group studies the roles of DNA unwinding enzymes known as helicases in genomic stability. A growing number of DNA helicases have been implicated in genetic disorders, cancer, and age-related diseases. Dr. Brosh's group has focused on helicases that act at the interface of cellular replication, recombination, and DNA repair.
Anne Brunet, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA
Current research is supported by numerouse grants including 2 NIH R01s and NIH R21.
Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, Mechanisms and Interventions of Aging Section, Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Research Center, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Suite 100 Baltimore, MD 21224
Irina Conboy, PhD (Stanford University) is Professor of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, QB3(UCB/UCSF/UCSC) core faculty member and Core Member of UCB/UCSF Graduate Program. A key direction of her laboratory is to understand age-imposed and pathological changes in circulatory milieu and their impact on signaling pathways that regulate tissue maintenance and repair. In the past few years this direction has been ramified to synthetic biology and innovative digital biosensors for diagnostics of age-imposed alterations and for assessing the response to treatments longitudinally, in real time. Overall, success in this research will improve our understanding of the determinants of homeostatic health and will enable novel approaches to treat a number of pathologies that range from tissue degeneration to cancer and include novel ways to avoid and diminish fibrosis, inflammation and metabolic decline. Prof. Conboy received numerous awards for her work in Aging field, including Silicon Valley Foundation Award for clinical translation of aging research, Open Philanthropy Award, Packer endowment for Aging research, Raymond and Beverly Sackler TAU Award, Calico Award, Bridging the Gap, Rogers’ Award, SENS Foundation and Life Extension Foundation, W.M. Keck Foundation Award, Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, Ellison’s Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging award, and NIH KO1 and National Research Service Awards.
Ronald A. DePinho, MD, Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Dr. DePinho is the Director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research program has made major discoveries of fundamental importance to cancer medicine, aging and degenerative disorders. He is a member of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Medicine and Genetics at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. DePinho is a former member the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research and co-chair of the NCI Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium and is current co-chair of the NIH Human Cancer Genome Altas Project and member of numerous advisory boards for the public and private sectors. His honors and awards include the AACR-Clowes Memorial Award, American Society for Clinical Investigator Award, American Cancer Society Research Professorship, Harvey Lecture, Melini Award for Biomedical Excellence, Irma T. Hirshcl Award, Kirsch Foundation Investigator Award, Helsinki Biomedicum Medal, and Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.
Jan van Deursen, PhD, Professor of Biochem/Molecular Biology, Professor of Pediatric, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA
Sergey Dmitriev, a mathematician and programmer, President, CEO and Founder of a successful software company, JetBrains, based in St. Petersburg (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic) and Boston (USA). Journal's website is based on sophisticated programs developed by his company. His goal is creating a community around the journal, involving scientists and the public, and fostering aging research. Commentaries, interviews with the authors and members of the editorial board, discussions will be a part of the journal activity
Lawrence A. Donehower, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Molecular Virology & Microbiology and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
Ph.D., The George Washington University. Postdoctoral, University of California, San Francisco
Toren Finkel, M.D.,Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Chief of the Cardiovascular Branch, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Toren Finkel received his undergraduate degree in Physics and his MD and PhD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1986. Following a residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital he completed a fellowship in Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1992, he accepted a position within the Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2001 he became the Chief of the Cardiology Branch and in 2007 he became Chief of the newly formed Translational Medicine Branch within the NHLBI. His current research interests include the role of reactive oxygen species in aging and stem/progenitor cell dysfunction in age-related diseases.
Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Division of Nutrition and Aging, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy, & Research Associate Professor of Medicine, and Associate Director of the Longevity Research Program, Washington University in St.Louis, MO, USA Trained in both internal medicine and metabolism, Fontana has an interest in nutrition, aging and longevity. Fontana's research focuses on the role of diet and exercise in preventing age-associated chronic diseases and in promoting healthy aging in humans. His lab is investigating the effects of calorie restriction, protein restriction, plant-based diets, endurance exercise and phytochemical supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors and function, inflammation, immune function, glucose tolerance, bone metabolism and cancer. He is also studying the endocrine role of abdominal fat storage as a mediator of insulin resistance and accelerated aging. Fontana received an M.D. from the Verona University Medical School and a Ph.D. in metabolism from the University of Padua Medical School.
Claudio Franceschi, M.D., Professor of Immunology, Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna
Associate Editor of "Aging, Clinical and Experimetal Research", 1989-present. Member of the Editorial Board of "Cell Death and Differentiation" (1995-1998), "Experimental Gerontology" (1998-present), "Mechanisms of Ageing and Development" (2000-present). Coordinator of the Biological Section of the Italian Gerontological Society (1994-1997). Coordinator of the Biological Study Session of the Italian Multicentric Study of centenarians. Member of the National Committee for the Italian National Project on Aging (1990-1996) of the Italian National Research Council. National Contact Point of the Italian Minister of Scientific Research for the Fifth BIOMED Programme of the European Union. Invited at NIA (Bethesda, 1996, 1998, 2000) as member of expert panelists on the Genetics of Human Longevity. Invited speaker at several International Conferences and Congress.
Evgeniy Galimov, Ph.D., is a researcher and data scientist at Imperial College Health Partners. He earned his Ph.D. from Lomonosov Moscow State University, where he focused on mitochondrial ROS signaling and its regulation by p66shc and mitochondrial antioxidants. During his postdoctoral work at University College London, Dr. Galimov investigated the mechanisms of organismal death, particularly the roles of Ca2+ and ATP in this process.
Dr. Galimov also developed a model of C. elegans evolution and, for the first time, demonstrated that aging and death could indeed be adaptive for a species, determined by ecological conditions. This work was significant because the previous theoretical consensus held that aging could not be adaptive. Given that C. elegans is an established aging model, this finding could help reinterpret the existence of single mutations that dramatically extend C. elegans lifespan. Additionally, Dr. Galimov developed a deep-learning model capable of classifying lifespan in C. elegans and identifying morphological features that influence the prediction.
Currently, Dr. Galimov is engaged in Real World Evidence health data research focused on age-related pathologies.
Lorenzo Galluzzi is currently Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology with the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Weill Cornell Medical College (New York, NY, USA), Honorary Assistant Professor Adjunct with the Department of Dermatology of the Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, CT, USA), Honorary Associate Professor with the Faculty of Medicine of the Paris Descartes University (Paris, France), and Faculty Member with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy) and the Graduate School of Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova (Padova, Italy).
Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medical College (2017), Lorenzo Galluzzi was a Junior Scientist of the Research Team “Apoptosis, Cancer and Immunity” at the Cordeliers Research Center (Paris, France; 2012-2016). Lorenzo Galluzzi did his post-doctoral training at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center (Villejuif, France; 2009-2011), after receiving his PhD from the Paris Sud University (Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France; 2005-2008). He is also Associate Director of the European Academy for Tumor Immunology (EATI), Co-chair of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Immunogenic Cell Death Working Group, and Founding Member of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology (ERI-ICP).
Lorenzo Galluzzi is best known for major experimental and conceptual contributions to the fields of cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism and tumor immunology. In particular, he provided profound insights into the links between adaptive stress responses in cancer cells and the activation of a clinically relevant tumor-targeting immune response in the context of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Lorenzo Galluzzi has published more than 400 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals. According to a survey published by Lab Times, he is currently the 6th and the youngest of the 30 most-cited European cell biologists (relative to the period 2007–2013), and he was nominated Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (formerly, Thomson Reuter) in 2016 and 2018.
David Gems is Professor of Biogerontology, and Research Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, UK. He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Sussex University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Glasgow University. After a postdoc at Imperial College London he obtained a fellowship to study the biology of ageing with Don Riddle at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. He then returned to the UK with a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to start his own lab at UCL in 1997. His work uses the nematodeCaenorhabditis elegans to try to identify general principles that govern the development of diseases of ageing (or to put it another way: to understand the underlying causes of senescence).
Vadim Gladyshev is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is also Director of the Center for Redox Medicine and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute.
Myriam Gorospe, PhD, Senior Investigator, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
Dr. Gorospe received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany in 1993 and completed post-doctoral training at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), where she has been Senior Investigator and head of the RNA Regulation Section since 2003. Her group studies post-transcriptional gene regulation in mammalian models of cellular stress, cell division, replicative senescence, and aging. Her research program investigates the influence of RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs on the expression of proteins implicated in these processes.
Leonard Pershing Guarente, Ph.D., MIT Novartis Professor of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA Leonard Guarente formerly studied gene regulation in eukaryotes (1980-1995). In these early studies, his lab first purified the TATA-binding protein TBP and cloned the gene, discovered UASs, identified the first heteromeric transcription factor (HAP2/3/4/5), and provided the first evidence for coactivators. He then turned his studies to the mechanism of aging and its regulation using yeast and subsequently higher organisms. His lab began studying aging in 1991 and showed SIR2 is a critical longevity gene in yeast and C. elegans His lab discovered the novel biochemical activity of the SIR2 gene product - NAD-dependent protein deacetylase. This activity suggested that SIR2 might link diet to aging, addressing the longstanding question of how calorie restriction (CR) slows aging. His lab established a system to study CR in yeast and showed that CR extended the life span in yeast mother cells by activating SIR2. More recently, his lab has made several findings regarding the mammalian ortholog of SIR2, SIRT1. Importantly, it controls several physiological processes impacted by CR. First, Sirt1 renders cells stress resistant by inhibiting pro-apoptotic transcription factors p53 and forkhead. Second, Sirt1 also regulates many metabolic functions influenced by diet, for example the mobilization of fat from white adipocytes upon food limitation, and the increase in muscle maintenance during CR. These findings show that the life and health extension by CR are not passive events, but result from the activation of Sirt1, which then impacts on cellular and organismal processes to deliver the benefits. More recently, his and other labs have linked SIRT1 to protection against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and osteoporosis in mouse models. Dr. Guarente received his B. S. from MIT and his Ph. D. at Harvard, under the supervision of Jon Beckwith. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with Mark Ptashne and has been on the faculty of MIT since 1981, where he is the Novartis Professor of Biology. His book Ageless Quest (Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2003) describes the pathway of discovery of SIR2 as a key regulator of life span in response to diet.
Andrei V. Gudkov, PhD, DSci, Professor and Chairman, Cell Stress Biology, The Garman Family Chair in Cell Stress Biology, Senior Vice President for Basic Research of Basic Science, Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Michael N. Hall, PH.D., Professor of Biochemistry, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Michael N. Hall received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the Biozentrum of the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1987 where he is currently Professor of Biochemistry. Dr. Hall is a world leader in the fields of TOR signaling and cell growth control. He discovered TOR (Target of Rapamycin) and subsequently elucidated its role as a central controller of cell growth. TOR is a conserved, nutrient-activated protein kinase. The discovery of TOR led to a fundamental change in how one thinks of cell growth. It is not a spontaneous process that just happens when building blocks (nutrients) are available, but rather a highly regulated, plastic process controlled by TOR-dependent signaling pathways. As a central controller of cell growth, TOR plays a key role in development and aging, and is implicated in disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.
Professor Philip Hanawalt, Ph.D., is Howard H. and Jessie T. Watkins University Professor in the biological sciences department and Professor of dermatology at Stanford University.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, since 1989. Phil Hanawalt has been a productive researcher in the field of DNA repair since his pioneering discovery of repair replication in E. coli in 1963. He is an author of more than 250 papers, Senior Editor of Cancer Res and member of editorial boards of several journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. and Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Nissim Hay, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. Of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Siegfried Hekimi, Ph.D., Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Siegfried Hekimi took his undergraduate degree and his PhD in Biology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He then stayed as a fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, where he started his studies with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In 1992 he started his own laboratory in the department of Biology at McGill University in Montréal where he holds the Strathcona Chair of Zoology and the Campbell Chair of Developmental Biology. His research, which now also extends to mice, is currently focused on how mitochondrial function and lipoprotein metabolism relate to the aging process.
Stephen L. Helfand, MD, Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry in the Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University
Dr. Helfand received his BS at Stanford University where he discovered the neuronal growth factor later renamed Ciliary Neuro Trophic Factor. Dr. Helfand obtained his MD degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed his Medical Internship at Montefiore Medical Center and his Neurology Residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Board Certified in Neurology. After Postdoctoral training at Stanford and at Yale he took a position at the University of Connecticut Health Center where from 1990 to 2005. In 2005 he moved to Brown University as Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry in the Division of Biology and Medicine. Dr. Helfand's laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying aging and longevity using the model system, Drosophila melanogaster. Dr. Helfand is an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar, recipient of a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, RO1 awards and a MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging. His recent work on the molecular genetics of aging has appeared in journals including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cell Metabolism, Current Biology and Aging (Impact Aging).
Jan H.J. Hoeijmakers, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Dr. Steve Horvath is Professor, Human Genetics and Biostatistics David Geffen School of Medicine, at University of California. Dr. Horvath's research lies at the intersection of aging research, epidemiology, chronic diseases, epigenetics, genetics, and systems biology. He works on all aspects of biomarker development with a particular focus on genomic biomarkers of aging. He developed several epigenetic clocks based on DNA methylation data. Salient features of this epigenetic clock include its high accuracy and its applicability to a broad spectrum of tissues and cell types. In epidemiological studies, Horvath co-authored the first articles demonstrating that epigenetic age predicts life-expectancy and is positively associated with obesity, HIV infection, Down syndrome, cognitive decline, Huntington's disease, early menopause, Werner syndrome. Using genome-wide association studies, his team identified the first genetic markers (SNPs) that exhibit genome-wide significant associations with epigenetic aging rates. Horvath developed widely used systems biologic approaches (notably weighted correlation network analysis, WGCNA) which lend themselves for integrating gene expression-, DNA methylation-, microRNA, genetic marker-, and complex phenotype data.
Stephen P. Jackson, Ph.D., Professor, Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Steve Jackson is well known for his pioneering work on cellular responses to DNA damage, particularly events regulated by DNA-damage-activated protein kinases. His group identified many key DNA-damage-response proteins and established how they interact with damaged DNA and with one another in regulated ways. Steve's research also helped us understand how such proteins impinge on telomere maintenance and on chromatin structure, and revealed that impairments in these responses cause genome instability, immune deficiency and cell-cycle progression defects. In 1997, Steve founded KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd, to transfer knowledge of DNA repair to medical applications. KuDOS, acquired in 2006 by Astra Zeneca, is now conducting several Phase 1 and Phase 2 oncology trials and has other products in pre-clinical development. Steve's academic group maintains strong scientific links with KuDOS, but research in his lab remains independent of the company.
Heinrich Jasper, PhD, Professor, Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, CA, USA. Dr. Jasper received his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, where he studied transcriptional regulation of developmental processes in Drosophila. He became a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center in 2003, and an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester in 2005. Dr. Jasper received a Senior Fellow Award of the Ellison Medical Foundation in 2008 and a Glenn Foundation Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging in 2010. His work was and is funded by the American Federation for Aging Research, National Institute of Aging, National Eye Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, New York Stem Cell Initiative, and the Ellison Medical Foundation.
Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, Associate Professor, Buck Institute, Novato, CA, USA The overall focus of the Kapahi laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms of aging, with a particular emphasis on Dietary Restriction (DR) which has been show to extend lifespan in species as diverse as yeast, worms, fruit flies and rodents. The Kapahi lab was the first to identify the role of target of rapamycin (TOR), a molecular pathway which is involved in nutrient sensing in all species ranging from plants to humans, in mediating lifespan extension by DR. Research in the Kapahi lab proposes that changes in mRNA translation downstream of the TOR pathway are key mediators of its lifespan effects. His laboratory is employing an interdisciplinary approach combining biochemical, genetic and genomic techniques, to understand how DR mediates changes in lifespan and metabolism using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans and mammalian cell culture systems. Due to the robustness of TOR and its strong conservation across species, identifying the molecular mechanisms that modulate lifespan upon DR holds great promise for finding potential targets for enhancing healthspan in humans. Work in the lab also has the broader significance to help uncover the role of nutrition and identify therapeutics for age-related human diseases like cancer, diabetes and neurodegeneration. Dr. Kapahi did his Ph.D. with Dr. Tom Kirkwood at the University of Manchester, UK and his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Michael Karin at University of California, San Diego and Dr. Seymour Benzer at California Institute of Technology. Dr. Kapahi is a recipient of the Ellison Medical foundation New Scholar award, Eureka award from the NIH and the Nathan Shock New Investigator Award from The American Geronotological Society.
Jan Karlseder, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciencs, American Cancer Society Professor and Director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging
Cynthia Kenyon received her PhD from MIT in 1981, where, in Graham Walker's laboratory, she was the first to look for genes on the basis of their expression profiles, discovering that DNA damaging agents activate a battery of DNA repair genes in E. coli. She then did postdoctoral studies with Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, studying the development of C. elegans. Since 1986 she has been at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was the Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and is now an American Cancer Society Professor. In 1993, Kenyon and colleagues' discovery that a single-gene mutation could double the lifespan of C. elegans sparked an intensive study of the molecular biology of aging. These findings have now led to the discovery that an evolutionarily conserved hormone signaling system controls aging in other organisms as well, including mammals. Dr. Kenyon has received many honors and awards for her findings. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine and she is a past president of the Genetics Society of America. She is now the director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at UCSF.
James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Physiology and Professor of Medicine, Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Guido Kroemer, M.D., Ph.D, Research Director, INSERM, Paris, France
Guido Kroemer. Born 11 June 1961 in Leer, Germany. Austrian and Spanish citizen. M.D/Ph.D. (immunology), University of Innsbruck (Austria), 1985. Ph.D. (molecular biology), University of Madrid (Spain), 1992. Assistant professor, University of Innsbruck 1986-1988. Post-doctoral fellow, College de France, 1989-1990. Group leader, Center of Molecular Biology, Autonomous University of Madrid, 1991-1993. Senior scientist, INSERM/CNRS, Villejuif (France), 1994-1999. Burnham fellow, Burnham Institute, La Jolla, CA, 1999-2001. RESEARCH DIRECTOR, INSERM, INSTITUT GUSTAVE ROUSSY, VILLEJUIF, 2000-. Member of European Cell Death Organization (board of directors, 2002-); European Molecular Biology Organization (elected in 2000); Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (president, 2005-); Academia Europaea (elected in 2007); German Academy of Sciences (elected in 2007), European Academy of Sciences and Arts (elected in 2008). Editorial Board of 22 journals (in 2008) including BBRC, Cell Cycle, Cell Death & Differentiation, Cancer Research, EMBO Journal, EMBO Reports, Oncogene; Recipient: Charles Oberling Prize, Senate of the French Republic, 1997; Jean Valade Prize, Fondation de France, 1998; Gallet et Breton Prize, National Academy of Medicine (France), 1999; INSERM Prize for Pathophysiology, 2000; Descartes Price, European Union, 2006; Grand Prix of the French Academy of Sciences, 2007; Carus Prize of the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), 2007.
Titia de Lange, Ph.D. member of the National Academy of Sciences, Leon Hess Professor, Rockefeller University, NY, NY, USA Dr. de Lange is an elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. Among numerous awards, she received the National Institutes of Health's Director's Pioneer Award in 2005, the Charlotte Friend Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research in 2004, an honorary degree from the University of Utrecht in 2003, and the first Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research in 2001.
Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D. member of the National Academy, Professor, The Simons Center for Systems Biology in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Levine was on the faculty of the Biochemistry Department of Princeton University from1968 to 1979, when he became chair and professor in the Department of Microbiology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, School of Medicine. Returning to Princeton University in 1984, he was named Harry C. Wiess Professor in the Life Sciences in the Department of Molecular Biology, a position he held until 1998. He chaired the Department between 1984 and 1996. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Rockefeller University in New York City from 1998 to 2002, as well as Heilbrunn Professor of Cancer Biology and laboratory head until joining the Institute in 2002. The recipient of many honors including: the Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Biomedical Research from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (2000); the Keio Medical Science Prize of the Keio University Medical Science Fund, Japan (2000); the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2001); and the Award for Basic Research from the Surgical Society of Oncologists (2003). Levine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Academy's Institute of Medicine; he is also the author or coauthor of over 300 scientific papers, as well as a book, Viruses (1993). He has served as board member or adviser to numerous scientific organizations and educational institutions, among them the N.J. Biotechnology Institute, the American Cyanamid Corporation, the SUNY Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Weizmann Institute, the Huntsman Cancer Center of the University of Utah, and the Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Michael P. Lisanti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA\nDr. Lisanti, is Leader/Director of the Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics of Cancer at the Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC). He is currently listed amongst the Top 100 Most-Cited Researchers in Biochemistry & Biology (THOMSON ISI); he is currently ranked # 23 World-wide; See http://www.in-cites.com/nobel/2007-bio-top100.html. He has published >300 papers and he is the PI of 3 NIH RO1 grants, as well as several other grants. Dr. Lisanti was recently named as the new Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Pathology (ranked #1 in Pathology). He also holds the Landenberger Endowed Professorship in Breast Cancer Research. Finally, he is Director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Kimmel Cancer Center/Jefferson. In accordance with his interest in the discovery of new breast cancer biomarkers, Dr. Lisanti has been appointed as the Director of Basic and Translational Science for the Department of Medical Oncology (November 2008), at the KCC.
Lawrence A. Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Valter D. Longo, Ph.D., Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA Valter D. Longo completed his postdoctoral training in the neurobiology of aging with Caleb Finch at the University of Southern California. He is an Associate Professor at the Andrus Gerontology Center and Dept. of Molecular and Computational Biology at USC, where he has been since 1997. His lab studies the molecular pathways that regulate resistance to stress, aging, and disease prevention in yeast, mice and humans, with focus on signal transduction, oxidative stress, genomic instability, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Gerry Melino, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Simon Melov, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Director of Genomics, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, 8001 Redwood Blvd, Novato, CA 94945
Alexey Moskalev, PhD, Dr.Sci, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology and Gerontology, Institute of Biology, Komi Science Center of RAS, Kommunisticheskaya St.28 167982, Syktyvkar Russia
Masashi Narita, MD. PhD., Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute University of Cambridge, Li Ka Shing Centre, Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0RE
Andre Nussenzweig, Ph.D., Head, Molecular Recombination Section, Senior Investigator
William C. Orr, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Department of Biological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA
His principle research focus lies in the use of transgenic and genetic models to examine mechanisms involved in the aging process, with emphasis on testing the Oxidative Stress Hypothesis of Aging.
Thomas A. Rando, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine; Chief Neurology Service VA Palo Alto Health Care System; Deputy Director, Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL)
MD, PhD, is a Professor of Energy Metabolism at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. He is interested in the biochemical and molecular basis of longevity ??? in particular the role played by mitochondria in lifespan regulation. Contrary to the widely reiterated Free Radical Theory of Aging, Ristow has repeatedly shown that the health-promoting effects associated with low caloric intake, physical exercise and other lifespan-extending interventions may be due to increased formation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) within the mitochondria, causing a vaccination-like adaptive response that culminates in increased stress resistance and extended longevity, a process a. k. a. mitochondrial hormesis or mitohormesis. He works with the roundworm C. elegans and mammalian model organisms, as well as humans.
Igor B. Roninson, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Ordway Research Institute, Director of Cancer Center, Ordway Research Institute, Research Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Adjunct Professor of Biology, State University of New York at Albany, Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Albany Medical College
Michael R. Rose, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Michael Rose is a Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and Director of the Network for Experimental Research on Evolution, a University of California Multicampus Research Program. His primary area of research is the evolution, genetics, and physiology of aging in fruit flies. He also works on the application of fruit fly research to human aging and chronic disease. The author of more than 200 scientific articles, he has also published a variety of books, including Evolutionary Biology of Aging, Darwin's Spectre, Methuselah Flies, and The Long Tomorrow.
K Lenhard Rudolph, Ph.D., Professor, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany
David M. Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016. He is known for his important contributions in the areas of cell signaling and cancer metabolism, most notably the discovery and study of mTOR, a protein kinase that is an important regulator of cell and organismal growth that is deregulated in cancer, diabetes, as well as the aging process.
Alberto Sanz, PhD, Wellcome Senior Research Fellow, Lord Kelvin/ Adam Smith Professor at Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
John M. Sedivy, Ph.D., Hermon C. Bumpus Professor of Biology and Professor of Medical Science, Brown University, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, 70 Ship Street, Providence RI 02903, USA
Manuel Serrano, PhD, Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Madrid, Spain
Manuel Serrano obtained his PhD in 1991 at the University of Madrid for research on DNA replication under the supervision of Margarita Salas. From 1992 to 1996, Manuel worked as postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Beach, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY, USA). During this time, Manuel made his most important discovery with the cloning and characterization of p16, which defined a new class of cell cycle regulators and was soon recognized as a key tumor suppressor. In 1997, Manuel returned to Spain as an independent investigator, initially at the National Center of Biotechnology, and since 2003 at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center directed by Mariano Barbacid. The main contributions of Manuel during these years have been related to the concept of oncogene-induced senescence as a tumor suppression mechanism, the role of p19Arf as an oncogenic sensor, the generation of novel mouse models with increased cancer resistance, and the identification of senescent tumor cells within premalignant tumors. More recently, Manuel's laboratory has discovered a cis-regulatory element at the p16 and p19Arf locus, has dissected the role of DNA damage and oncogenic signaling in p53-mediated cancer protection, and has reported the anti-aging activity of the Arf/p53 module.
Gerald S. Shadel, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology Departments of Pathology & Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Gerald S. Shadel, Ph.D. is a Professor of Pathology at Yale University School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Genetics. He has almost 25 years of experience studying mechanisms of gene regulation in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and is currently regarded as a leader in the areas of mitochondrial gene expression, biogenesis, and signaling, a trajectory that began as a Damon-Runyon postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. The research in his lab, first in the Department of Biochemistry at Emory University and currently at Yale University, has focused on factors and mechanisms that govern yeast and mammalian mitochondrial gene expression and mtDNA maintenance, the requisite signaling pathways involved in regulating these processes, and how associated defects are involved in human disease and aging. Upon moving to Yale (in 2004), in addition to carrying on basic studies in yeast (mostly involving TOR signaling pathway regulation of mitochondrial function and life span), cultured cell models (mechanistic studies of the mechanism of mtDNA expression/maintenance) and in vitro biochemical approaches (regulation of human mitochondrial transcription using recombinant systems), his lab has increasingly shifted to analysis of mouse models of human disease with a focus on those that have mitochondrial involvement, including cancer, Ataxia-Telangiectasia, and deafness. Finally, he was awarded the "AMGEN Outstanding Investigator Award" from the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) in 2007 and is a permanent member of the NIH study section on Cellular Mechanisms in Aging and Development (CMAD).
Director of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA
On June 10, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intent to select Dr. Norman E. Sharpless as the new director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Vladimir P. Skulachev, Ph.D., DSci, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Director, Belozersky Institute, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Graduated from Dept. Animal Biochemistry, Moscow State University (MSU), 1957.
PhD, 1960. Doctor of Biology, 1969. Since 1965, Head of Dept. Bioenergetics, Belozersky Inst. Phys.-Chem. Biol., MSU. Since 1973, Director of this Inst. Since 2003, Dean of Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, MSU. Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea (AE). In 1990s, member of Council of AE. Honorary President of Russian Biochem. Soc. Editor-in-Chief of Biochemistry (Moscow). Plenary Lecturer of 11 Intern. Biochem. Congress (Toronto, 1979) and FEBS Meeting (Albufeira, 1985). The most important findings: (i) thermoregulatory uncoupling of respiration and phosphorylation (1960); (ii) uncouplers as protonophores (1967); (iii) mitochondrial electricity and penetrating ions as a tool to reveal electric potential on intracellular organelles and bacteria (1969); (iv) bacteriorhodopsin, respiratory and photosynthetic chain complexes and H+-ATPase as electric generators (1974); (v) electric potentials as the driving force to rotate bacterial flagellum (1978); (vi) potentials as convertible membrane-linked energy currencies (1985); (vii) mitochondria as electric cables (1989); (viii) mitochondrial anion carriers as mediators of fatty acid-induced uncoupling (1991); (ix) mild uncoupling as an antioxidant mechanism (1996); (x) cationic derivatives of plastoquinone are a tool to prevent senescence (2008).
Prof. Dr. Clemens Steegborn, Department of Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Germany
George Thomas, Ph.D., Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
He is the Interim Director of the Genome Research Institute, and holds the John and Gladys Strauss Chair in Cancer Research. He is recognized for the purification and cloning of the cell-signalling molecules S6K1 and S6K2. Dr. Thomas's laboratory is focused on elucidating the role of these kinases in cell growth, and is responsible for the identification of the upstream regulatory components that control their activity, including the TSC1/TSC2 tumor suppressor complex. Recently, the Thomas group has focused on the role that this pathway plays in the regulation of appetite and energy balance, the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and diabetes, and the pathogenesis of cancer-related syndromes such as type 1 neurofibromatosis. The Thomas laboratory has recently shown that S6K1 plays a critical role in a negative feedback loop to monitor insulin signaling, and is following up on this observation to study how the pathologies underlying cancer, obesity and diabetes are intimately linked through mTOR/S6K signaling.
Jonathan L. Tilly, Ph.D., Full Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Harvard Medical School
In addition to his academic appointment at Harvard Medical School , Dr. Tilly is the Director of the Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital , Chief of the Division of Research in the MGH Vincent Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital , and an Affiliated Faculty Member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Tilly is recognized for more than 20 years of work directed at elucidating the mechanisms responsible for normal (aging-associated) and premature ovarian failure. Much of his earlier studies focused on the genes and signaling pathways that activate or repress apoptosis in female germ cells (oocytes), and how prevention of oocyte death could be used to extend the functional lifespan of the ovaries into advanced ages. More recently, the Tilly laboratory has re-directed its efforts towards defining the contribution of rare oocyte-producing or oogonial stem cells (OSCs) to development, function and failure of adult mammalian ovaries. In addition to initially demonstrating the existence of oogonial stem cells in adult mouse ovaries in 2004, Dr. Tilly's laboratory has since purified OSCs, demonstrated the impact of aging on the function of these cells, and identified several agents that activate OSCs in vivo as a means to increase the size of the oocyte-containing follicle reserve as it becomes compromised by advancing age.
John Tower, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA John Tower received his PhD in 1988 from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology Training Program, where he worked under the direction of Dr. Barbara Sollner-Webb on the topic of rDNA transcriptional regulation. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral training with Dr. Allan C. Spradling, at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Baltimore, working on Drosophila P element mutagenesis and chorion gene amplification. In 1991 he joined the faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, in what is now the Molecular and Computational Biology Program. Dr. Tower has been investigating the molecular genetics of aging in Drosophila since 1990, with a particular emphasis on transgenic technologies, hsps and superoxide dismutase. Additional topics of research in the Tower laboratory include real-time video tracking of animal movement and gene expression, and the role of p53 and the sex-determination pathway in aging.
Eric Verdin, MD, Associate Director and Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, Professor, UCSF, San Francisco, CA.
Dr. Verdin obtained his MD degree from the University of Liege, Belgium, conducted his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and has held previous faculty positions at the University of Brussels, Belgium, at the NIH, and at the Picower Institute for Medical Research. His research has focused on the biology of reversible protein acetylation. Recent contributions include the identification of several novel cellular targets for sirtuins and in particular, the role of mitochondrial sirtuins in metabolism and aging. Dr. Verdin is author or co-author of more than 120 articles and author on 15 patents. He serves as editor of Mol. Cell. Biology, PLoS ONE and Virology.
Dr. Gen Sheng Wu is a Professor at Molecular Therapeutics Program
Karmanos Cancer Institute, Departments of Oncology and Pathology
Wayne State University School of Medicine, Room 1245, Elliman Building, 421 E. Canfield
Detroit, MI 48201, [email protected]
Thomas von Zglinicki , Ph.D., Professor of Cellular Gerontology, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5PL
Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine, a company applying latest advances in deep learning to drug discovery and biomarker development headquartered at the Emerging Technology Centers on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the CSO of the Biogerontology Research Foundation, a UK-based registered charity supporting aging research worldwide. He is also the director of the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP), the head of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the Federal Clinical Research Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology in Russia and is the adjunct professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He holds two Bachelor Degrees from Queen’ s University, a Masters in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Moscow State University. He is co-organizing the Annual International Aging Research for Drug Discovery forum in Basel, Switzerland.
Aging’s Editorial Board Member Elizabeth H. Blackburn won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 while being a member of our board. We are proud to note that she co-authored a paper published in the first (inaugural) issue of Aging. Dr. Blackburn also won the Breakthrough Prize in 2014 for her discoveries related to telomeres and telomerase.
We continue to mourn the departure of our Founding Editorial Board Member, Judith (Judy) Campisi, who passed on January 19th, 2024, at the age of 76.
Dr. Campisi was a pioneering, internationally celebrated researcher that established cellular senescence as a key process in cancer and aging. In her lifetime, she received numerous awards for her research, including two MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging and awards from the AlliedSignal Corporation, Gerontological Society of America, and the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Campisi was a recipient of the Longevity prize from the IPSEN Foundation, the Bennett Cohen award from the University of Michigan, and the Schober award from Halle University. She was the first recipient of the international Olav Thon Foundation prize in Natural Sciences and Medicine.
We are honored to remember Dr. Campisi as a Founding Member of Aging.