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Contact: Stacey Harris Winners of Awards for Today's and Tomorrow's Leaders in NEW YORK, April 24, 2008 -- At a time when the baby boomer population is growing at a dramatic rate, two leaders in their respective research areas - Arlan Richardson, PhD, director of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Ana Maria Cuervo, MD, PhD, associate professor of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, were chosen as the 2008 recipients of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) Irving S. Wright Award and the first Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research Award, respectively. Dr. Richardson's research seeks to understand the role oxidative stress/damage play in aging and age-related diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. By developing and using transgenic and knockout mouse and rat models with alterations in the antioxidant defense system, Dr. Richardson studies how increased or decreased oxidative damage affects survival, age-related pathology, and physiological parameters that are markers of physiological aging. He is also developing assays to measure oxidative damage to proteins. The Irving S. Wright Award of Distinction is named in honor of the founder of the American Federation for Aging Research and is intended to honor exceptional contributions to basic or clinical research in the field of aging by members of the scientific community. "It is hard to imagine not recognizing Arlan Richardson for the Irving Wright Award," said George M. Martin, MD, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research and professor of pathology emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "Building upon the earlier tenure of his predecessor Ed Masoro, PhD, a 1995 Irving Wright Award recipient, he has developed, at San Antonio, what many would now regard as the leading center for biogerontological research in the country. He has been an exceedingly generous and collaborative colleague as well as a superb experimentalist," Dr. Martin added. Dr. Richardson is an author of 164 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is a recipient of numerous awards including the Nathan Shock Award from the Gerontology Research Center at the National Institute on Aging; and the Robert W. Kleemeier Award for outstanding research in the field of gerontology from the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Richardson will present the Wright Award Lecture at the Gerontological Society of America's annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland on Saturday, November 22, 2008. Dr. Cuervo's work has elucidated a central role for alterations in autophagy as a mechanism in aging and age-related diseases. Modifications in autophagy lead to accumulation of damage components inside cells and an increased sensitivity to stress, hallmarks of the aging process. Her research focuses on understanding how altered and damaged proteins, as those that accumulate in neurodegenerative diseases, can be eliminated from cells. Her research team has identified a novel cell surveillance mechanism that contributes to eliminate these damaged proteins, and have recently developed a transgenic mouse model in which accumulation of damaged proteins with age is dramatically reduced, demonstrating that removal of these toxic products is possible. The Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research honors the late Vincent Cristofalo, PhD, who devoted his professional career to conducting research on aging and encouraging younger scientists to investigate important problems in the biology of aging. The award recognizes outstanding researchers in the first half of their careers who have made major discoveries in the fundamental biology of aging and whose work is deemed likely to be highly influential for decades to come. "Vincent Cristofalo would have been delighted with the choice of Ana Maria Cuervo as the first recipient of this special honor," said Dr. Martin. "This creative young scientist has managed to bring to the attention of her seniors a neglected but enormously important aspect of the biology of aging cells - the processes of autophagy," he added. Dr. Cuervo will be presenting the Cristofalo Award Lecture at the annual scientific meeting of the American Aging Association in Boulder, Colorado, Saturday, May 31, 2008. Both awards will be formally presented at the AFAR annual awards dinner taking place in New York City on October 6, 2008. # # # AFAR is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support biomedical research on aging. It is devoted to creating the knowledge that all of us need to live healthy, productive, and independent lives. Since 1981, AFAR has awarded more than $100 million to nearly 2,500 talented scientists as part of its broad-based series of grant programs. Its work has led to significant advances in our understanding of the aging process, age-related diseases, and healthy aging practices. AFAR communicates news of these innovations through its organizational web site www.afar.org and educational web sites Infoaging (www.infoaging.org) and Health Compass (www.healthcompass.org).
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American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) | 55 West 39th Street, 16th Floor | New York, NY 10018 Phone: (212) 703-9977 | Toll-free: (888) 582-2327 | Fax: (212) 997-0330 E-mail: or info@afar.org |
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