image: The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (GFMR) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) are pleased to announce 2025 recipient of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Discovery Awards: Christina Camell, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Minnesota). The Glenn Foundation for Medical Discovery Awards support research projects with strong potential to develop pioneering discoveries to understand the underlying biological mechanisms that govern normal human aging and itsrelated physiological decline. Two, three-year awards totaling $525,000 each are made each year.
Credit: AFAR
Santa Barbara, CA and New York, NY -- The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research (GFMR) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) are pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Discovery Awards: Christina Camell, PhD (Associate Professor, University of Minnesota) and Elaine Fuchs, PhD (Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor, The Rockefeller University and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute).
The Glenn Foundation for Medical Discovery Awards support research projects with strong potential to develop pioneering discoveries to understand the underlying biological mechanisms that govern normal human aging and its related physiological decline. Two, three-year awards totaling $525,000 each are made each year.
Dr. Camell’s Discovery Award is titled "Macrophage inflammation; cellular identity and healthspan during aging." Dr. Camell seeks to better understand the aging immune system, and specifically how macrophages (a type of white blood cells with a central role in mediating age-related inflammatory pathways) contribute to cellular dysfunction. Dr. Camell and her team will investigate how macrophages cause loss of cellular function in metabolic tissues with the ultimate goal of maintaining youthful cellular function in critical metabolic organs. Explore Dr. Camell’s research here.
Dr. Fuch’s Discovery Award is titled “Staying youthful by preventing tissues from retaining life-long memories of past inflammatory experiences.” The skin epidermis is exposed to a lifetime of stressful environments that pose major health issues, particularly as we age. Dr. Fuchs and her team discovered that our epidermis keeps long-lasting nuclear (epigenetic) memories of local acute inflammation, enabling skin to react faster and more robustly, often years later, to diverse stresses. The mechanisms they are unearthing by studying epidermal stem cells suggest that all tissues of our body may be learning from experiences, with profound consequences, both beneficial and maladaptive, to tissue and even whole-body fitness. Dr. Fuchs seeks to devise methods to erase bad memories (age-related chronic inflammation, increased cancer risk) and keep good memories (faster wound-repair, broadened pathogen resistance). Explore Dr. Fuchs’ research here.
'“The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Discovery Award seeks to support investigators venturing into new areas of aging research which could lead to innovative and novel advances with significant potential to benefit human health and well-being,” states Kevin Lee, PhD, Senior Scientific and Programmatic Advisor, Glenn Foundation for Medical Research.
Notes Stephanie Lederman, EdM, Executive Director, AFAR: "The Discovery Awards create an opportunity for fresh perspectives to help better understand and therapeutically target the biological processes of aging. This not only this enriches the field of aging research at large but also paves the way toward interventions that will help us all live healthier, longer. AFAR is grateful for our decades-long partnership with the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research in various programs and for its visionary support of this highly impactful program.”
Learn more about the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Discovery Awards here.
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About the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research - Founded by Paul F. Glenn in 1965, the mission of the Glenn Foundationfor Medical Research is to extend the healthy years of life through research on mechanisms of biology that govern normal human aging and its related physiological decline, with the objective of translating research into interventions that will extend healthspan with lifespan. Learn more at glennfoundation.org.
About AFAR - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research that is revolutionizing how we live healthier and longer. For more than four decades, AFAR has served as the field’s talent incubator, providing $225,316,000 to 4,539 investigators at premier research institutions to date—and growing. In 2025, AFAR expects to provide approximately $12,816,000 to 79 investigators. A trusted leader and strategist, AFAR also works with public and private funders to steer high quality grant programs and inter-disciplinary research networks. AFAR-funded researchers are finding that modifying basic cellular processes can delay—or even prevent—many chronic diseases, often at the same time. They are discovering that it is never too late—or too early—to improve health. This groundbreaking science is paving the way for innovative new therapies that promise to improve and extend our quality of life—at any age. Learn more at www.afar.org.