The scientists that AFAR has supported have contributed scientific findings of great importance that are already dramatically changing both our understanding and practice of medicine. Many of our grantees are now mentors to the next generation. Here are but a few examples of AFAR grantees who are now leaders in the field:

Nir Barzilai, MD, Director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Barzilai's research focuses on the basic mechanisms of the biology of aging. He is currently leading a program to investigate the metabolic decline with aging and its impact on longevity, as well as another project to identify longevity genes in centenarians. Dr. Barzilai's research has been published in Science and The Journal of the American Medical Association, and featured in many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and most recently on NOVA on PBS.

W. Ted Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics, Director of the George A. Jervis Clinic, and Director at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities at the State University of New York's Medical School in Brooklyn
Dr. Brown is considered the world expert on Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disease that accelerates the aging process to about seven times the normal rate. He is an active member of the Progeria Research Foundation's scientific research committee and a consortium that recently discovered the gene mutation that causes progeria (G608G in LMNA). He has published more than 300 papers in a number of medical journals, including American Journal of Human Genetics and Nature, and he has also been featured in The New York Times.

Judith Campisi, Ph.D. Senior Scientist, Life Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Member, UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center
Dr. Campisi is one of the world's leading authorities on the relationship between aging and cancer. Her studies have focused on the properties of cells grown in culture. These studies (at UC Berkeley and at the Buck Institute) have yielded important insights into the relationship between tumor incidence and aging. As a post-doctoral fellow, she aimed to identify key differences responsible for the controlled growth of normal cells and uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. At a crucial juncture of her career, she received an AFAR grant, which provided much needed seed funds to launch her studies into the process of cellular senescence. Her studies have led her into the evolutionary biology of aging, the molecular mechanisms that maintain genome stability, the biology of hereditary premature aging and cancer-prone syndromes in humans, and the importance of cell and tissue microenvironments in the development of both aging and cancer phenotypes.

Andrew P. Goldberg, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Head, Division of Gerontology, University of Maryland and Co-Director of the UM Center for Aging Research
Dr. Goldberg's research examines the effects of exercise and dietary interventions on tissue metabolism in older people. The research focuses on prevention of the cardiovascular and diabetic complications associated with the sedentary lifestyle and dietary indiscretion prevalent in Western societies. His work strongly supports the concept that "regular physical activity throughout life is important for maintaining a healthy body, enhancing psychological well-being, and preventing premature death."

S. Michal Jazwinski, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Co-Director, Center on Aging, Louisiana State University School of Medicine
The AFAR award played an important part in Dr. Jazwinski's early efforts to convince others that aging yeast can yield valuable insights into fundamental mechanisms of aging. As he describes: "I wanted to learn how many divisions were available to a cell, using the powerful genetics of yeast. In those early days, I benefited greatly from an AFAR grant. To understand the function of LAG1, we isolated the human homologue, which is now called LASS1. We then found that this gene operates ceramide synthesis in yeast and human sphingolipid. Ceramide is a major signaling molecule in the cell; it triggers growth and differentiation and also cell death, depending on circumstances. We are examining the characteristics of an individual's metabolism that predispose to long life with retention of functional ability in a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional project called the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study, which has garnered funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). This foray into clinical research will tell us whether the principles we have uncovered in the yeast model are applicable to humans."

Mark S. Lachs, M.D., M.P.H., Director of Geriatrics, The New York Presbyterian Health System and Co-chief of the division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Dr. Lachs is a prominent physician investigator in the field of elder abuse and neglect, adult protective services, the measurement of functional status, ethics, and the financing of health care. He has lectured internationally on the topic and serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization. His research has been published in several medical and geriatric journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and Gerontologist.

Richard A. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of the Geriatrics Center at the University of Michigan
Dr. Miller's scientific contributions and leadership in the aging area can be traced back to his initial AFAR funding. The importance and influence of the AFAR grant can be best expressed in his own words: "At the time I received support from AFAR, my lab was focusing on the question of why T lymphocytes (blood cells that help protect against cancer and infections) from aged mice were so poor compared to cells from younger subjects. We've found that T cells from old mice can be tricked into responding as well as cells from young mice by treating them with an enzyme that digests some of the cell proteins that inhibit the first steps in the activation process. The second strand of our research agenda has been to learn more about the ways in which genetic mutations can (again in mice) slow the aging process. These mutations slow all age-related diseases, too, and thus extend life span by about 40%, about 10 times the effect you'd see if cancer were completely eliminated in people. Our newest results show that these mutations, acting through altered hormone levels, make cells harder to kill. Our current goals are to learn what biochemical changes within the cells are responsible for defensive responses, and to see if we can find drugs that can do the same thing for normal cells."

David Morgan, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the Director of the Alzheimer's Research Laboratory at the University of South Florida
Dr. Morgan 's research focuses on the development of therapies that could delay or prevent Alzheimer's disease, determining the role that inflammation plays in the brain, and exploring the development of antibodies to prevent the buildup of beta-amyloid, the substance that clumps into plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Dr. Morgan is also looking into whether certain foods such as blueberries have beneficial effects on cognitive function. His work has been published in Science, Nature and Journal of Neuroscience.

Thomas Perls, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University's School of Medicine
Dr. Perls leads a team that analyzes the genetic and environmental-behavioral profiles of hundreds of New England centenarians, as well as their siblings and children in an effort to identify the factors that allow these people to live longer, healthier lives. Dr. Perls, a 1998 Beeson Scholar, has had his work published in Nature, JAMA, the Journal of Gerontology and other medical journals, and featured in several national media, including TIME, The Today Show and CNN.

May J. Reed, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle
Initially Dr. Reed focused on the effect of aging on wound repair but has broadened her work to include the implications of impaired growth of blood vessels on tumor proliferation in aging men and women. Since her initial AFAR funding, she has successfully competed for major grants from the NIH to maintain her investigations of tissue repair processes in aging.

Holly Van Remmen, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology and Cell Biology at the Barshop Center on Aging of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio
Dr. Van Remmen has published seminal studies providing critical tests of the oxidative stress theory-one of the major theories of why we and most living creatures get old. Her initial work was funded by AFAR. These studies demonstrated that longevity of mice and rats was not compromised by diminished anti-oxidant defenses. Since these groundbreaking studies, Dr. Van Remmen has successfully competed for National Institutes of Health (NIH), Veterans' Administration, and other funding. She is a Past President of the American Aging Association and is a recognized expert in the area of oxidative stress and aging-related diseases.

David R. Sell, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
For most of Dr. Sell's scientific career, his research focus has been on the study of reactions of sugars with long-lived proteins as the basis of aging and diabetes. An obvious sign of these reactions with age is a progressive stiffening of long-lived tissues which line essentially all organs of the body. Because of the excess amount of sugars present in the diabetic state, these reactions are greatly accelerated. Since oxidation is involved in many of these reactions, they have been referred to as "glycoxidation." He discovered a specific sugar-derived glycoxidative protein and cross-link, named pentosidine. This protein was found to increase in human skin and other tissues with aging, diabetes, and kidney disease. Currently, he is spending most of his time investigating other sugar-derived markers for the aging process.

David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging
Dr. Sinclair's research focuses on finding small molecules and genes that can delay or prevent diseases caused by aging. His lab is one of the few in the world that studies a variety of different organisms -- baker's yeast, nematode worms, fruit flies and mice -- to understand aging. In 1997, Sinclair's research at M.I.T. identified the discovery of the cause of aging in yeast, a first for any species. Dr. Sinclair's research about the beneficial role of the enzyme resveratrol on health and lifespan, generated worldwide media attention in the fall of 2006. In a paper published in Nature, Dr. Sinclair and colleagues at Harvard Medical School demonstrated that high doses of resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, blocked the bad effects of a high-fat diet in mice and extended their lifespan by 20%. The study found that resveratrol provides protection against the diseases linked to obesity such as diabetes and heart disease.

William E. Sonntag, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology and Director of Basic Science Research for the Roena Kulynych Center for Memory and Cognition Research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Dr. Sonntag has studied the role of age-related changes in growth hormone and IGF-1 on the functional decline and pathology that occurs with age. His most recent findings demonstrate that decreases in circulating IGF-1 contribute to the decline in learning and memory. Replacement of these hormones improves many aspects of cognitive and physical function. Since his initial funding from AFAR, he has been continually funded by the National Institute on Aging and currently leads a large program project designed to assess the interactions among growth hormone, IGF-1, the microvasculature, and the age-related deficits in learning and memory.