 | Dominique Broccoli, Ph.D.
Fox Chase Cancer Center | | Molecular Mechanisms of Telomere Dependent Senescence
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Telomeres are specialized structures at the ends of chromosomes that are essential for stability. They are composed of several thousand base pairs of a repeating DNA sequence, (TTAGGG), and proteins that bind specifically to this sequence. In human cells, telomeric DNA is lost each time the cell divides due to the repression of a specialized... (more) |
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 | Phillip Carpenter, Ph.D.
University of Texas Medical School - Houston | | Biochemical Characterization of a Putative p53-binding Protein from Xenopus
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
During the eukaryotic cell cycle, the genome is duplicated through the process of DNA replication and segregated to daughter cells during the process of mitosis. When the events that coordinate the cell cycle fail to properly operate, abnormal cellular conditions arise. Some of these conditions appear to be related to the... (more) |
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Stewart Frankel, Ph.D.
Yale University School of Medicine | | The Regulation of Chromosomes and Longevity
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Aging is often depicted as an inevitable grinding down of the bodily machine, but there is much evidence to suggest it is a biological process under some genetic control. In order to better understand this process, we are attempting to speed up and slow down aging experimentally. This is being done by testing a series of mutations for an effect upon... (more) |
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Shiv L. S. Grewal, Ph.D.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | | Heterochromatin Assembly and Replicative Life-Span in Fission Yeast
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Heterochromatin is a description of transcriptionally 'silent,' condensed chromosomal regions which largely consist of repetitive sequences, located primarily at centromeres and telomeres. Recent studies have suggested that heterochromatin plays many important functions, including proper segregation of chromosomes during... (more)(Following this award, Dr. Grewal relocated to the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.) |
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 | Danesh Moazed, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School | | Connections Between the Nucleolus and Cellular Aging
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Chromosomes, the carriers of the cell's genetic information, are composed of distinct functional domains that ensure their fateful inheritance during the process of cell division and chromosome duplication. One example of such functional organization is the presence of large stretches of DNA which are packaged into a repressed state where... (more) |
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Henry L. Paulson, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Iowa | | Mechanisms of Neuronal Dysfunction and Death in Neurodegenerative Proteinpathies
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
As we age, neurons in our brain tend to accumulate abnormal protein. The same process occurs in degenerative diseases of aging such as Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, but at a much faster rate. Our research aims to identify the various ways that abnormal protein accumulation compromises the neuron in... (more) |
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Zhou Songyang, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine | | Functional Analysis of Aging and Cell Survival Signal Pathways in Mammalian Cells
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
One intriguing puzzle in modern biology is how different life-spans and aging rates are determined in different species. Answers to such questions will help us battle various aging-related diseases, and ultimately improve the health and quality of life in humans. Aging rates are believed to be primarily controlled... (more) |
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David Q.H. Wang, M.D., Ph.D.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School | | Aging and Cholesterol Gallstone Formation: Molecular Mechanisms of Gallstone (Lith) Genes
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Cholesterol gallstone disease occurs rarely in childhood and adolescence. As epidemiological observations have suggested and as clinical studies have confirmed, the prevalence of cholesterol gallstone disease increases linearly with advancing age and approaches 50% at age 80. Elderly individuals are at high... (more) |
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 | Weidong Wang, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health | | Characterization of a Novel Protein Complex Involved in the Human Premature Aging Disease - Werner Syndrome
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Werner Syndrome (WS) is a rare human genetic disease with many features of premature aging. The patients usually appear normal during their teenage years. But later they prematurely develop several age-related diseases, including artherosclerosis, osteoporosis, diabetes, malignant neoplasm... (more)(Research for the first 2 years was conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.) |
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Huaxi Xu, Ph.D.
Rockefeller University | | Gonadal Steroid Regulation of ß-Amyloid Generation: Cellular Mechanisms and Animal Models
1999 New Scholar Award in Aging
Alzheimer's disease (AD) occurs when large numbers of neurons - the cells which make up the brain, die over many years. These cells are in the areas of the brain which are responsible for forming and storing memories and for performing higher thought processes. This is why AD affects memory and the... (more)(Following this award, Dr. Xu relocated to the Burnham Institute. Contact Dr. Xu) |
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