| Giuseppe Attardi, M.D. California Institute of Technology | | Aging-dependent Large Accumulation of Mutations at Specific Sites in Human Mitochondrial DNA Control Region
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Recently, the use of a novel approach for specific detection of heteroplasmic mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has surprisingly revealed high copy point mutations (present in up to 50% of mtDNA) at specific positions in the control region of human fibroblast mtDNA from normal old, but... (more) |
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| Tamas Bartfai, Ph. D. Scripps Research Institute | | Chronic Neuroprotection during Aging by UCP Mediated Simultaneous Reduction of Free Radical Formation and Exocitotoxicity
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
The present proposal is aimed at testing the hypothesis that activation of brain specific Uncoupling Proteins (UCPs) could prove chronically neuroprotective by providing a combination of two protective measures a) reducing free radical formation, b) reducing the vulnerability... (more) |
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| Nir Barzilai, M.D. Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University | | Identification of Longevity Genes in Founder Populations
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Despite evidence for a substantial genetic component, the inherited factors that define life span (longevity) in humans remain unknown. The overall objective of this proposal is to identify chromosomal loci (and ultimately genes) that influence longevity and longevity-related traits in humans, and to define how these genes exert their effects... (more) |
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Roger Brent, Ph. D. Molecular Sciences Institute | | Identification of Protein Regulators of Self-renewal, Differentiation, and Senescence in Embryonic Stem Cells
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
No further information available at this time |
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| Linda B. Buck, Ph. D. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center | | A High Throughput Screen for Longevity Genes
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
C. elegans is an ideal model organism for exploring the mechanisms that determine lifespan. It is short-lived, its genome has been sequenced, and its utility for studying aging has been demonstrated by previous studies. Moreover, because similar molecular strategies are often used in C. elegans and mammals to achieve the same overarching... (more)(Research for the first 2 years was conducted at Harvard Medical School.) |
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| Jack D. Griffith, Ph. D. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill | | Telomere Looping and Control of Cell Aging
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Our research has focused on the long range remodeling of DNA as it undergoes replication, recombination, and repair. Such topics remain one of the most difficult areas to study using standard molecular tools but can be approached by direct electron microscopic (EM) visualization. Telomeres are believed to represent a molecular clock that regulates the... (more) |
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| Philip C. Hanawalt, Ph. D. Stanford University School of Medicine | | Repair of Oxidative DNA Damage in Human Neurons
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Accumulation of deleterious alterations in neuronal DNA has been invoked in models for neurological diseases and aging. While there has been a fair amount of speculation, there have been few definitive studies in this important field. We have been studying the excision repair of DNA damage induced by ultraviolet light in terminally differentiated... (more) |
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| Peter J. Hornsby, Ph. D. University of Texas Health Science Center - San Antonio | | Cell Transplantation Models for Gene Action in Human Aging
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
The overall aim of this grant is to provide new methods for the study of gene action in human aging, using cell transplantation techniques applied to human adrenocortical cells. Prior to beginning this grant, we had established methods for genetic modification of bovine adrenocortical cells and for examining the function of genetically... (more)(The first year of this research was conducted at Baylor College of Medicine.) |
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Thomas Kornberg, Ph. D. University of California - San Francisco | | Toward a Comprehensive Assessment of Gene Expression during Development and Aging of Drosophila
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
The availability of extensive genomic sequence, EST databases, and DNA chip technology opens unprecedented opportunities to precisely define the gene expression profiles of different types of cells. To wit, it is now possible to accurately compare mRNA populations expressed in different cells by... (more) |
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Charles M. Lieber, Ph. D. Harvard Medical School | | Molecular through Cellular Changes Responsible for Alzheimer's Disease
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by loss of memory and decreased intellectual function, which result from the loss of function of nerve cells in the brain. Cortical amyloid plaques comprising fibrillar deposits of the amyloid beta [Ab] proteins Ab40 and... (more) |
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| David Ron, Ph. D. Skirball Institute - New York University School of Medicine | | Proteotoxicity and Aging
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Proteins make up a substantial portion of the cell's mass and are involved in most regulated aspects of its activity. They consist of complex polymers of amino acids joined together through peptide bonds. To function, proteins must undergo a folding process that gives them the proper three dimensional structure. Numerous genetic and biochemical observations suggest... (more) |
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| Thomas P. Sakmar, M.D. Rockefeller University | | The Chromophore Regeneration Pathway in Age-related Macular Degeneration
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the elderly population. However, little is known about the etiology and molecular pathophysiology of AMD. AMD is characterized clinically by mottling of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) at the posterior pole of the fundus and scattered drusen,... (more) |
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| Sangram S. Sisodia, Ph. D. University of Chicago | | Molecular Determinants of Hippocampal Neuroplasticity in a Mouse Model of b-Amyloid Deposition
2000 Senior Scholar Award in Aging
The elderly are the most rapidly growing segment of the population, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia in this age group. Cognitive decline, memory impairments and decline in verbal episodic memory, the earliest signs of incipient Alzheimer's... (more) |
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