NEW YORK, NY and SANTA BARBARA, CA - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Research Grants for Junior Faculty:
- Joshua Baker, M.D., M.S.C.E., Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Baker will study age and obesity-related alterations in skeletal muscle mitochondrial activity and lipid distribution, and associations with joint inflammation and cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis.
- Daniel Berry, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cornell University. Dr. Berry will study age-dependent decline of beige adipocyte induction and its metabolic consequences.
- Benjamin Cosgrove, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cornell University. Dr. Cosgrove will study single-cell dissociation of muscle stem cell dysfunction in human aging.
- Isha Jain, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, Sandler Faculty Fellow, University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Jain will study hypoxia as a therapy for age-associated proteotoxic stress and neurodegeneration.
- Kishore Kuchibhotla, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kuchibhotla will study how to improve cognitive flexibility in aging by modulating context-dependent neural circuits.
- Po-Ru Loh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Brigham and Women's Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Dr. Loh will study the etiology and effects of age-related clonal hematopoiesis.
- Andreas Pfenning, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Pfenning will study cell type-specific epigenetic decay underlying brain aging.
- Andrew Pickering, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Pickering will study if genetic and pharmacologic proteasome manipulation can prevent age-related cognitive deficits in mice and flies.
- Vivek Venkatachalam, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Northeastern University. Dr. Venkatachalam will study whole brain dynamics in aging c. elegans.
- Kevin Wang, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Wang will study whether rebooting the nuclear architecture can be an innovative cellular reprogramming strategy to reverse aging.
- Deborah Winter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Winter will study the role of epigenomic reprogramming on monocyte development in aging.
- Nilay Yapici, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cornell University. Dr. Yapici will study changes in the structure and function of neural circuits that regulate homeostatic drives during aging.
The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Research Grant for Junior Faculty provides an early career investigator with up to $100,000 for one- to two-years to support research focused on aging processes and age-related diseases.
"The Research Grant for Junior Faculty provides flexible support at a critical juncture in their career when research funding is most difficult to obtain," notes Stephanie Lederman, Ed.M., AFAR's Executive Director.
Through a rigorous review process, twelve Research Grants for Junior Faculty, totaling $1,200,000 dollars have been awarded this year. Since 1981, AFAR has provided more than $178 million to more than 4,100 talented investigators and students.
"Understanding the basic biology of aging is essential to advancing better therapies for age-related diseases," notes Mark R. Collins, President of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research. "The research supported through these Junior Faculty grants will lead to discoveries that can help extend healthspan, our years of health as we age."
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About the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research -Founded by Paul F. Glenn in 1965, the mission of the Glenn Foundation for 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 http://www.glennfoundation.org
About the American Federation for Aging Research - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to support and advance healthy aging through biomedical research. Founded in 1981, AFAR has championed the cause and supported the funding of science in healthier aging and age-related medicine. To address the shortage of physicians and researchers dedicated to the science of healthier aging, AFAR funds physicians and scientists probing the fundamental mechanisms of aging, as well as specific diseases associated with aging populations at critical points throughout their careers. AFAR engages the public through webinars and briefings. Learn at http://www.afar.org or follow AFAR.org on Twitter and Facebook.