Editorial Board

Founding Editors-in-Chief

• Mikhail V. Blagosklonny (1961-2024)
  Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA
  

  It is with great sadness and heavy heart that we announce the recent passing of Dr. Mikhail (Misha) V. Blagosklonny, our beloved Editor-in-Chief. Misha succumbed to metastatic lung cancer after a courageous battle.

  Dr. Blagosklonny will be remembered as a brilliant and extraordinary scientist who dedicated his life to science. He was a visionary thinker, who made highly original contributions to cancer and aging research that were often ahead of their time.


Related Tributes and Reflections
It is with great sadness and heavy heart that we announce the recent passing of Dr. Mikhail (Misha) V. Blagosklonny, our beloved Editor-in-Chief. Misha succumbed to metastatic lung cancer after a courageous battle.
Dr. Blagosklonny will be remembered as a brilliant and extraordinary scientist who dedicated his life to science. He was a visionary thinker, who made highly original contributions to cancer and aging research that were often ahead of their time.
Dr. Blagosklonny was born into a family of scientists. His mother, Professor of Medicine Yanina V. Blagosklonnaya, specialized in endocrinology and was a talented teacher, mentoring several generations of medical students. His father, Professor Vladimir M. Dilman, was a brilliant gerontologist, endocrinologist and oncologist, known for being a very charismatic person. He was the first person to encourage Misha to think about nature, aging, and philosophy.
Misha was a theorist by nature. While in school, he was deeply interested in physics and dreamed of becoming a theoretical physicist. Eventually, he chose biology, driven to study aging and age-related diseases, including cancer. He started as an experimentalist, but over the years, he became a theoretical biologist. In a way, his dream came true. 
After earning his MD/PhD in cardiology and experimental medicine from Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg , Dr. Blagosklonny was awarded a prestigious Fogarty Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. During his productive fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Dr. Leonard M. Neckers’s laboratory, he co-authored 18 publications in diverse areas of cancer research and was the last author on a clinical phase I/II trial paper . Then, he held a brief but productive senior research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Dr. Wafik S El-Deiry’s laboratory before returning for several years to the NCI, where he collaborated with Dr. Tito Fojo. During those years, Dr. Blagosklonny co-authored over 30 research articles covering various topics in cancer research, including targeting HSP90, p53, Bcl2, Erb2, and Raf-1.
It was also at that time that, as a sole author, he published several experimental and theoretical papers encompassing the most important themes in his scientific career.

The first key theme focused on the selective protection of normal cells during cancer therapy. Despite the dogma, Dr. Blagosklonny showed that drug resistance provides opportunities for protection of non-resistant normal cells with selective killing of drug-resistant cancer cells. The original concept, titled "Drug-resistance enables selective killing of resistant leukemia cells: exploiting of drug resistance instead of reversal ,” was published in Leukemia in 1999. The idea was so unconventional that, at first, it was incorrectly cited as “reversal of resistance” instead of “exploiting of resistance.”
The renowned, world famous scientist Dr. Arthur Pardee was so impressed by Dr. Blagosklonny’s idea that he visited the NCI to meet Mikhail, and in 2001 they co-authored the paper “ Exploiting cancer cell cycling for selective protection of normal cells.” Later, when Misha launched Oncotarget, Dr. Pardee became one of the journal's first Founding Editors.
Dr. Blagosklonny continued to develop the concept of normal cells protection in the following years. These are the most essential publications on this topic: 
1999: Drug-resistance enables selective killing of resistant leukemia cells: exploiting of drug resistance instead of reversal
2001: Exploiting cancer cell cycling for selective protection of normal cells
2002: Cyclotherapy: protection of normal cells and unshielding of cancer cells
2003: Tissue-selective therapy of cancer
2004: Gefitinib (iressa) in oncogene-addictive cancers and therapy for common cancers  
2005: Why therapeutic response may not prolong the life of a cancer patient: selection for oncogenic resistance  
2008: “Targeting the absence" and therapeutic engineering for cancer therapy
2011: Exploring long-term protection of normal human fibroblasts and epithelial cells from chemotherapy in cell culture
2023: Selective protection of normal cells from chemotherapy, while killing drug-resistant cancer cells
The second key theme was Dr. Blagosklonny's innovative research method to generate new knowledge and ideas by synthesizing facts and observations from seemingly unrelated fields. This concept was published in Nature in 2002, titled “Conceptual biology: Unearthing the gems.”
The most significant outcome of this concept was the development of the hyperfunction (or quasi-programmed) theory of aging and the discovery of rapamycin as a potential anti-aging drug. Dr. Blagosklonny first published this idea in 2006, titled "Aging and immortality: quasi-programmed senescence and its pharmacologic inhibition.” Dr. Michael Hall, who discovered the protein TOR (Target of Rapamycin), credited Dr. Blagosklonny for "connecting dots that others don’t even see” in a Scientific American publication.
Dr. Blagosklonny held several faculty positions before joining Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as Professor of Oncology in 2009, and most recently served there as an adjunct faculty member. In his later years, Dr. Blagosklonny continued to develop his hyperfunction theory of aging and published extensively on the prevention of cellular senescence by rapamycin and other mTOR inhibitors, on cancer (an age-related disease) prevention by slowing down organismal aging, and on combinations of potential anti-aging drugs for use in humans. 
These are just a few essential publications on those topics from more than 200 papers:
2006: Aging and immortality: quasi-programmed senescence and its pharmacologic inhibition  
2007: Paradoxes of aging
2009: TOR-driven aging: speeding car without brakes
2009: Aging-suppressants: cellular senescence (hyperactivation) and its pharmacologic deceleration
2009: Growth and aging: a common molecular mechanism
2010: Rapamycin and quasi-programmed aging: four years later
2010: Increasing healthy lifespan by suppressing aging in our lifetime: preliminary proposal
2010: Calorie restriction: decelerating mTOR-driven aging from cells to organisms (including humans)
2010: Rapamycin extends maximal lifespan in cancer-prone mice
2012: Answering the ultimate question "what is the proximal cause of aging?"
2012: Prospective treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging
2013: Rapamycin extends life- and health span because it slows aging
2013: MTOR-driven quasi-programmed aging as a disposable soma theory: blind watchmaker vs. intelligent designer
2013: Aging is not programmed: genetic pseudo-program is a shadow of developmental growth
2014: Weekly administration of rapamycin improves survival and biomarkers in obese male mice on high-fat diet
2014: Geroconversion: irreversible step to cellular senescence
2018: Rapamycin, proliferation and geroconversion to senescence
2021: DNA- and telomere-damage does not limit lifespan: evidence from rapamycin
2021: The hyperfunction theory of aging: three common misconceptions
2022: Cell senescence, rapamycin and hyperfunction theory of aging
2022: Rapamycin treatment early in life reprograms aging: hyperfunction theory and clinical practice
2023: Towards disease-oriented dosing of rapamycin for longevity: does aging exist or only age-related diseases?  
2023: Are menopause, aging and prostate cancer diseases?
Dr. Blagosklonny has published more than 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals, serving as the first, last, or sole author on nearly all of his papers.
Dr. Blagosklonny was also a very passionate editor. He always dreamed of being an editor. It all began in 2002 when he was invited to become an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cell Cycle, a position he held for more than 16 years.
Understanding the importance of sharing scientific information without borders, he formulated the idea to launch journals for scientists, by scientists. Since cancer and aging research were always the main focus of his scientific interests, Dr. Blagosklonny, in collaboration with his colleagues, founded Aging in 2009 (co-editors-in-chief: the late Judith Campisi and David Sinclair) and Oncotarget in 2010 (co-editor-in-chief: Andrei Gudkov). Both journals are renowned for their outstanding Editorial Boards, innovative approaches, and significant popularity within the scientific community.
In 2012, Dr. Blagosklonny founded Oncoscience, a unique journal that publishes free of charge for both authors and readers. It can be considered a philanthropic endeavor.
In addition, Dr. Blagosklonny has served as an associate editor or a member of the editorial board of such journals as Cancer Research, International Journal of Cancer, Leukemia, Cell Death Differentiation, Cancer Biology & Therapy, American Journal of Pathology, Autophagy, and others.
Misha was a funny and witty person, who always had very interesting and unconventional opinions about various topics and was always looking for the roots of different matters. Everyone who knew him for a long time felt that they grew as a person because of his influence. He realized himself in this life as a scientist, editor, family man and a friend.
Dr. Blagosklonny envisioned his cancer battle as a mission to explore how metastatic cancer can be treated with curative intent. He published several articles about his battle, sharing original ideas and pushing the boundaries of cancer treatment in collaboration with his doctors. In his own words, Dr. Blagosklonny was near-curing of incurable cancer. He was in remission about two years and stayed active until the last days.
• My battle with cancer. Part 1

• Targeted cancer therapy: the initial high concentration may slow down the selection for resistance 

• From osimertinib to preemptive combinations

• Selective protection of normal cells from chemotherapy, while killing drug-resistant cancer cells 

• Cancer prevention with rapamycin 

• Towards disease-oriented dosing of rapamycin for longevity: does aging exist or only age-related diseases?
Dr. Blagosklonny passed away at his home in Boston, MA.
A special thank you to his colleagues and friends, who continuously supported Misha during his cancer battle: Dr. Tito Fojo, Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, Dr. Andrei Gudkov, Dr. Vadim Gladyshev and Dennis Mangan, to name a few.
He will be deeply missed.
–The entire staff of Impact Journals, LLC
Honoring Dr. Blagosklonny:
Related Tributes and Reflections
Andrei Gudkov
Dear colleagues,

With great sadness, I share the news of the passing of Misha Blagosklonny, an extraordinary scientist whose highly original contributions significantly advanced cancer and aging biology research. Roswell was fortunate to have him as a faculty member in the Department of Cell Stress Biology during several exceptionally productive years, during which he published over 100 papers. Misha was also widely known as the founding editor of several prominent peer-reviewed journals, including Cell Cycle, Oncotarget, Oncoscience, and Aging.
He was always a visionary thinker, often ahead of his time, with ideas that pushed the boundaries of our field. Tragically, Misha succumbed to metastatic cancer after about two years of remission following an initial positive response to targeted therapies. Even in his final days, he continued to collaborate actively and creatively with his physicians, as evidenced in his thoughtful posts on X (https://x.com/blagosklonny?lang=en ).

Misha will be remembered as one of the most uniquely gifted oncologists of our time.
For more details about his professional life, please visit: Dr. Blagosklonny.
Sincerely,
Andrei
David Sinclair
David's History with Misha

Sad news: the passing of my brave friend, founder and Co-Chief editor of @AgingJrnl, Dr. Misha Blagoskonny. I will miss him dearly.

Some history & injustices...👇 pic.twitter.com/xNq7bYphR0
— David Sinclair (@davidasinclair) October 1, 2024
Honoring Misha with Professors Gems, Gudkov & Gladyshev

Honoring our trailblazing friend, Prof. Misha @Blagosklonny, who left this world way too soon. With Professors Gems, Gudkov & Gladyshev 💐🙏 pic.twitter.com/dsib9HBXaW
— David Sinclair (@davidasinclair) October 25, 2024
Wafik S. El-Deiry
An Evening to Honor Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny with Close Friends
This evening, a number of close friends and colleagues came together in Boston for a few hours to remember and pay tribute to Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny, MD, PhD, who left us a few weeks ago after courageously battling lung cancer with brain metastases for two years.

Misha had a… pic.twitter.com/kEpQAzXQgh
— Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP (@weldeiry) October 25, 2024
David Barzilai
A Profound Loss to the Fields of Geroscience and Cancer Biology
The passing of Dr. Mikhail "Misha" Blagosklonny is a profound loss to the fields of geroscience and cancer biology. As a visionary researcher with over 260 peer-reviewed publications, Misha’s work at the crossroads of oncology, aging, and translational research has reshaped…
— Agingdoc⭐David Barzilai🔔MD PhD MS MBA DipABLM🩺 (@agingdoc1) October 25, 2024
Alex Zhavoronkov, et al
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206135
In memory of Judith Campisi and Mikhail Blagosklonny, whose pioneering work laid the foundational stones for this field, we continue to explore the depths of ageing research with a renewed commitment to unraveling the mysteries of longevity. Through this review, we aim to honor their legacy by contributing to the ongoing dialogue and development within the global ageing research community.
Michael Lisanti
Hi All,

Sorry for the late reply, but I was shocked and deeply saddened by the news of the loss of Misha.
He was a great force for positive change in the scientific research community.
He was always open-minded, and willing to listen to and consider new ideas and paradigms.
And, he was more than willing to openly share his new ideas and reflections as well. He was a visionary.
He will be sorely missed by all of us.
All the best,
Michael L.
Henry Walker (via LinkedIn)
My journey in metabolic health began with an interest in longevity. I learned of Dr Alan Green and his story of reversing his heart failure with rapamycin. That story is documented on his website www.rapamycinthereapy.com. Dr. Green learned of rapamycin through the articles of Dr Mikhail (Misha) Blagosklonny. I read everything Misha wrote. I had questions, so I emailed him. He surprisingly replied and then asked me to follow him on Twitter. I was very against social media. Waste of time. But I couldn’t refuse Dr B!
Following the science of rapamycin and the physiology of its target enzyme led me to learn about the fasting mimicking diet and low carb diets, ketosis etc. Down the rabbit hole I went!
But it all started with Misha asking me to follow him. Well, I just learned that Misha recently lost his long cancer battle. Also, I hear that Dr Alan Green passed just a few days later. I consider these men heroes. They will be remembered as pioneers in the science of longevity.
Godspeed gentlemen.
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Editors-in-Chief

• Vera Gorbunova
  University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

Vera Gorbunova, PhD, Doris Johns Cherry Professor; Endowed Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester and a Co-Director of the Rochester Aging Research Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Dr. Gorbunova research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of longevity and genome stability and on the studies of exceptionally long-lived mammals. Her lad studies comparative biology of aging, genomic stability, and epigenetics of aging. More recently the focus of her research has been on the longest-lived rodent species the naked mole rats and the blind mole rats. Her work received awards from the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Glenn Foundation, American Federation for Aging Research, and from the National Institutes of Health. Her work was awarded the Cozzarelli Prize from PNAS, the prize for research on aging from ADPS/Alianz, France, Prince Hitachi Prize in Comparative Oncology, Japan, and Davey prize from Wilmot Cancer Center.

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• David A. Sinclair
  Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

David A.Sinclair, Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of the Glenn Laboratories for Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Dr. Sinclair obtained a BSc (1st class honors) and a Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. From 1995-1999, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Lenny Guarente at M.I.T. Dr. Sinclair has received awards including The Australian Commonwealth Prize, a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Award, a Leukemia Society Fellowship, a Ludwig Scholarship, a Harvard-Armenise Fellowship, an American Association for Aging Research Fellowship, and a Fellowship and Senior Scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation.

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• Jan Vijg
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

Jan Vijg, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

He received his Ph.D. at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1987. From 1990 to 1993 he was founder and Scientific Director of Ingeny B.V., a Dutch Biotechnology company. In 1993 he moved to Boston, to take up a position as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1998 he accepted an offer from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, to become a Professor in the Department of Physiology. From 2006 to 2008 he was a Professor at the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California. With his research team he was the first to develop transgenic mouse models for studying mutagenesis in vivo (in 1989) and used these models ever since in studying the relationship between damage to the genome and aging. He has published over 200 scientific articles and is inventor or co-inventor on 8 patents.

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Editorial Board Members

• Frederick Alt
  Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Frederick W. Alt, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Alt is also Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Inst., Charles A. Janeway Professor of Pediatrics, HMS, Scientific Director, CBRI Institute for Biomedical Research. Fred Alt received a PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of He is the recipient of the 2003 Excellence in Mentoring Award from the American Association of Immunologists and the 2004 Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association of Cancer Research. Editorial Boards: Mol. and Cell. Biology; Advances in Immunology; International Immunology; J. Exp. Med.; Current Opinion in Immunology; Immunity (founding Co-editor; 1993-present); Molecular Medicine (Contributing editor; 1997-present); Faculty of 1000 (co-head, Immunology). Honors and Awards: Fox Award, Stanford Univ. (1973); Hirschl Award (1983); Searle Scholar; (1983) Mallinckrodt Scholar; (1984); NIH Merit Award (1991); National Academy of Sciences (1994); American Academy of Microbiology (1994); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994); Associate (Foreign) Member, European Molecular Biology Organization (1999); Excellence in Mentoring Award,Association of Immunologists (2003); American Association of Cancer Research B.H.A. Clowes Award (2004); Rabi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize in Immunology &Cancer Research (2005); Leukemia & Lymphoma Society de Villiers International Achievement Award (2005), Pasarow Foundation Prize in Cancer Research (2005); Irvington Institute Scientific Leadership in Immunology Award (2005); Establishment of Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology by the Irvington Institute (2006); National Cancer Institute Alfred Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics (2007).

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• Vladimir Anisimov
  Petrov Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia

Vladimir N. Anisimov, M.D., Ph.D., DSc., Professor, N.N.Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia

Professor Vladimir N. Anisimov, Chief, Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Aging (since 1987) and Head, Department of Carcinogenesis and Oncogerontology (since 1998) at the the N.N.Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, St.Petersburg, Russia. Research interests include relationship between aging and cancer, modifying factors of carcinogenesis, experimental gerontology. Since 1994 he is the president, the Gerontological Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author and co-author of 16 monographs, including "Carcinogenesis and Aging", vol. 1 and 2, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1987, and "Molecular and Physiological Mechanisms of Aging", Nauka, St.Petersburg, 2003, more than 350 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

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• Peter Attia
  Attia Medical, PC, Austin, TX, USA

Peter Attia, MD, Chief Medical Officer and C-founder of Attia Medical Center, PC, also known as Early Medical

Peter Attia attended Stanford University School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. Attia spent five years at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland as a general surgery resident. He spent two years at the National Cancer Institute at NIH as a Surgical Oncology Fellow. Dr. Attia joined the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in the Palo Alto office as a Member of the Corporate Risk Practice and Healthcare Practice. In 2014, Dr. Attia founded Attia Medical, PC, a medical practice focusing on the applied science of longevity.

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• Johan Auwerx
  Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Johan Auwerx, MD, PhD, Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Johan Auwerx received his M.D. in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Molecular Endocrinology in 1989 at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. He is a certified clinical specialist in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition and is currently professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he heads a research group together with Dr. Schoonjans (click here to see the press release on prof. Auwerx' appointment). Johan Auwerx is internationally known as an expert in metabolic diseases, molecular biology, and mouse molecular genetics. His work was instrumental for the development of agonists of the peroxisome proliferation activated receptors into drugs, which now are commonly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. He furthermore was amongst the first scientists to recognize the impact of the sirtuins and SRC/p160 gene family on metabolic homeostasis, suggesting that cofactors are valid targets to treat metabolic diseases. Dr. Auwerx spearheaded a unique large mouse phenogenomics program and was the director of the Strasbourg Mouse Clinical Institute from 2006 to 2008. Prof. Auwerx was elected as a member of EMBO in 2003. He is a member of editorial boards of Cell, Cell Metabolism, EMBO J and EMBO Rep.

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• Andrzej Bartke
  Southern Illinois University, Springfield, IL, USA

Andrzej Bartke, Ph.D, Professor, SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, USA

Andrzej Bartke received Master's degree in Biology in his native Poland in 1962 and Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Kansas in 1965. He held various positions including chairmanship of Physiology Department at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine between 1984 and 2002. During most of his career, his research was in the area of endocrinology of reproduction with particular emphasis on the role of prolactin in the male, effects of hyperprolactinemia, and effects of altered growth hormone signaling on female and male reproductive functions. During the last 10 years, most of his work concerned the genetic and hormonal control of aging, use of long-lived mutants in aging research and interaction of caloric restriction with longevity genes. He published approx. 500 research papers and approx. 100 review articles and book chapters and served as President of the American Society of Andrology, Society for the Study of Reproduction and American Aging Association.

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• Nir Barzilai
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

Nir Barzilai, M.D. is the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research and of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging.

Dr. Nir Barzilai is the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics, and member of the Diabetes Research Center and of the Divisions of Endocrinology & Diabetes and Geriatrics. Dr. Barzilai’s research interests are in the biology and genetics of aging. One focuses on the genetic of exceptional longevity, where we hypothesize and demonstrated that centenarians have protective genes, which allows the delay of aging or for the protection against age-related diseases.

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• Elizabeth H. Blackburn (Nobel Prize Laureate)
  University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciences, Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research and discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase. Dr. Blackburn won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009. Throughout her career, she has been honored by her peers as the recipient of many prestigious awards. These include the Eli Lilly Research Award for Microbiology and Immunology (1988), the National Academy of Science Award in Molecular Biology (1990), and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Yale University (1991). She was a Harvey Society Lecturer at the Harvey Society in New York (1990), and the recipient of the UCSF Women's Faculty Association Award (1995), the Australia Prize (1998), the Harvey Prize (1999), the Keio Prize (1999), American Association for Cancer Research-G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award (2000), American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2000), AACR-Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Alfred P. Sloan Award (2001), E.B.Wil son Award of the American Society for Cell Biology (2001), 26th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research (2003), and the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (2004), Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Jack Szostak), Genetics Prize from the Peter Gruber Foundation (2006), Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2007) (shared with Carol W. Greider and Joseph G. Gall), L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2008), Mike Hogg Award (2009), Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2009), the Breakthrough Prize (2014). She was named California Scientist of the Year in 1999, elected President of the American Society for Cell Biology and served as a Board member of the Genetics Society of America (2000-2002). Dr. Blackburn is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the Royal Society of London (1992), the American Academy of Microbiology (1993), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000). She was elected Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and was elected as a Member of the Institute of Medicine in 2000. Dr. Blackburn is a faculty member in the PIBS (Program in Biological Sciences) and BMS (Biomedical Sciences) graduate Ph.D. programs at UCSF, and a Program Member of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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• Maria Blasco
  Spanish National Cancer Center, Madrid, Spain

Maria Blasco, PhD, Professor, Director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Madrid

Maria A. Blasco obtained her PhD in 1993 for her research on DNA polymerases at the Centro de Biología Molecular (Madrid) under the supervision of M. Salas. That same year, Blasco joined the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, (USA), under the leadership of C. W. Greider. During this time, Blasco cloned one of the mammalian telomerase genes and generated the first telomerase knockout mouse. In 1997 she returned to Spain to start her own research group at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (Madrid), where she continued her work on the development of mouse models for the study of telomerase in cancer and ageing. She moved to the CNIO in 2003 as Director of the Molecular Oncology Program and Leader of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group. Blasco has received the Swiss Bridge Award for Research in Cancer, the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award, the EMBO Gold Medal, the Rey Jaime I Basic Research Award and the Körber European Science Award. She is an elected EMBO Member since 2000 and a member of the Academia Europaea since 2006. She was appointed to the EMBO Council in 2008.

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• Vilhelm A. Bohr
  National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA

Vilhelm A. Bohr, MD, PhD, Chief, Molecular Gerontology Branch, Biomedical Research Center, National Institute on Aging, NIH

Dr. Bohr received his M.D. in 1978, Ph.D. in 1987, and D.Sc. in 1987 from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. After training in neurology and infectious diseases at the University Hospital in Copenhagen, Dr. Bohr did a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Hans Klenow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He then worked with Dr. Philip Hanawalt at Stanford University as a research scholar from 1982-1986. In 1986 he was appointed to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as an investigator, becoming a tenured Senior Investigator in 1988. Dr. Bohr developed a research section in DNA repair at the NCI. In 1992 he moved to the NIA to become Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, renamed Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology in February 2001. Dr. Bohr is the Editor-in-Chief of Mechanisms of Ageing and Development.

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• William M. Bonner
  National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

William M. Bonner Ph.D., Scientist Emeritus, Head of Chromatin Structure and Function Group, Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, DHHS NIH NCI CCR, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

Dr. Bonner received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This was followed by postdoctoral studies at Oxford University and the MRC Laboratories in Cambridge, England. While at Cambridge, he became interested in histones and continued this work when he arrived at the NIH in 1974 as a Staff Fellow in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Two years later he moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology in NCI. In 1980 he identified two specialized variants of the histone H2A family, which were given the names of H2AX and H2AZ. Continuing his work on various aspects of histone metabolism during the 1980s and early 90s, he uncovered in 1998 the relationship between DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) and the phosphorylated form of histone H2AX, named γ-H2AX.

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• Robert M. Brosh, Jr.
  National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA

Robert M. Brosh, Jr., Ph.D., Senior Investigator, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, NIH Biomedical Research Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

Dr. Robert Brosh received his B.S. in chemistry from Bethany College in 1985, M.S. in biochemistry from Texas A & M University in 1988, and Ph.D. in biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996. He did postdoctoral work at NIH before assuming his present position as a Principal Investigator in the Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology, NIA in 2000. Dr. Brosh's group is engaged in biomedical studies of DNA repair diseases. His research program also investigates the emerging importance of helicases in other facets of biology including cellular metabolism and inflammation.

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• Anne Brunet
  Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Anne Brunet, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Co-director, Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging, Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA

Her lab studies are mechanisms of aging and longevity with a particular emphasis on the nervous system. Current research is supported by numerous grants including 2 NIH R01s and NIH R21.

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• Rafael de Cabo
  NIA, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA

Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., Senior Investigator, Mechanisms and Interventions of Aging Section, Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Biomedical Research Center, Baltimore, MD 21224

Dr. de Cabo is Branch Chief of the Translational Gerontology Branch at the National Institute on Aging, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. His research on calorie restriction in rhesus macaques suggested that calorie restriction in monkeys have no significant effects on their lifespan. In 2011, his research on obese mice suggested that resveratrol mimetic helps extend longevity and his research on male mice suggested that metformin have a longevity effect. The research of Dr. de Cabo has focused on the effects of nutritional interventions and aging.

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• Irina Conboy
  University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Irina Conboy, PhD (Stanford University) is Professor of Bioengineering, UC Berkeley, QB3(UCB/UCSF/UCSC) core faculty member and Core Member of UCB/UCSF Graduate Program

A key direction of Dr. Conboy's laboratory is to understand age-imposed and pathological changes in circulatory milieu and their impact on signaling pathways that regulate tissue maintenance and repair. In the past few years this direction has been ramified to synthetic biology and innovative digital biosensors for diagnostics of age-imposed alterations and for assessing the response to treatments longitudinally, in real time. Overall, success in this research will improve our understanding of the determinants of homeostatic health and will enable novel approaches to treat a number of pathologies that range from tissue degeneration to cancer and include novel ways to avoid and diminish fibrosis, inflammation and metabolic decline. Prof. Conboy received numerous awards for her work in Aging field, including Silicon Valley Foundation Award for clinical translation of aging research, Open Philanthropy Award, Packer endowment for Aging research, Raymond and Beverly Sackler TAU Award, Calico Award, Bridging the Gap, Rogers’ Award, SENS Foundation and Life Extension Foundation, W.M. Keck Foundation Award, Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, Ellison’s Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging award, and NIH KO1 and National Research Service Awards.

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• Ronald A. DePinho
  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Ronald A. DePinho, MD, Professor and former president in the Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas

Dr. DePinho holds the Harry Graves Burkhart III Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Biology. His research program has made major discoveries of fundamental importance to cancer medicine, aging and degenerative disorders. He assumed the presidency at MD Anderson on September 1, 2011. There, he founded the Institute for Applied Cancer Science to accelerate development of next-generation targeted immune- and cell-based cancer therapies. He launched MD Anderson's Cancer Moon Shots Program, which became a model for the White House Cancer Moonshot funded by former President Barack Obama and administered by National Cancer Institute. He is a member of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Medicine and Genetics at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. DePinho is a former member the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research and co-chair of the NCI Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium and is current co-chair of the NIH Human Cancer Genome Altas Project and member of numerous advisory boards for the public and private sectors. His honors and awards include the AACR-Clowes Memorial Award, American Society for Clinical Investigator Award, American Cancer Society Research Professorship, Harvey Lecture, Melini Award for Biomedical Excellence, Irma T. Hirshcl Award, Kirsch Foundation Investigator Award, Helsinki Biomedicum Medal, and Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.




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• Jan van Deursen
  Cavalry Biosciences, San Francisco, CA, USA

Jan van Deursen, PhD, Cofounder and Lead Scientist of Cavalry Biosciences since 2021

Jan van Deursen is a former Professor of Biochem/Molecular Biology, Professor of Pediatric, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA. His current research is based on a therapeutic concept derived from his work on senescence and atherosclerosis. Cavalry's central goal is to develop tissue-selective biotherapeutics that restore growth factor insufficiencies caused by hereditary mutations or aging.

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• Sergey Dmitriev
  JetBrains, Boston, MA, USA

Sergey Dmitriev, President and Co-owner of the JetBrains

Sergey Dmitriev is a mathematician and programmer, President and Founder of a successful software company, JetBrains, based in St. Petersburg (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic) and Boston (USA). Journal's website was originally based on sophisticated programs developed by his company. His goal is creating a community around the journal, involving scientists and the public, and fostering aging research. Commentaries, interviews with the authors and members of the editorial board, discussions will be a part of the journal activity.

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• Lawrence A. Donehower
  Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Lawrence A. Donehower, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Molecular Virology & Microbiology and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Ph.D., The George Washington University. Postdoctoral, University of California, San Francisco. Currently Dr. Danehower is examining the role of tumor suppressor genes in cancer.

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• Toren Finkel
  University of Pittsburgh/UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Toren Finkel, M.D.,Ph.D., Director, Aging Institute, University of Pittsburgh/UPMC, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, G. Nicholas Beckwith III and Dorothy B. Beckwith Chair in Translational Medicine

Toren Finkel received his undergraduate degree in Physics and his MD and PhD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1986. Following a residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital he completed a fellowship in Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1992, he accepted a position within the Intramural Research Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2001 he became the Chief of the Cardiology Branch and in 2007 he became Chief of the newly formed Translational Medicine Branch within the NHLBI. His current research interests include the role of reactive oxygen species in aging and stem/progenitor cell dysfunction in age-related diseases.

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• Luigi Fontana
  University of Sydney, Australia

Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., Professor & Ullmann (Picasso) Chair of Translational Metabolic Health | Scientific Director, Charles Perkins Centre RPA Clinic & Healthy Longevity Program at Sydney University

Trained in both internal medicine and metabolism, Fontana has an interest in nutrition, aging and longevity. Fontana's research focuses on the role of diet and exercise in preventing age-associated chronic diseases and in promoting healthy aging in humans. His lab is investigating the effects of calorie restriction, protein restriction, plant-based diets, endurance exercise and phytochemical supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors and function, inflammation, immune function, glucose tolerance, bone metabolism and cancer. He is also studying the endocrine role of abdominal fat storage as a mediator of insulin resistance and accelerated aging. Fontana received an M.D. from the Verona University Medical School and a Ph.D. in metabolism from the University of Padua Medical School.

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• Claudio Franceschi
  University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Claudio Franceschi, M.D., Professor Emeritusf Immunology, Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna

Associate Editor of "Aging, Clinical and Experimetal Research", 1989-present. Member of the Editorial Board of "Cell Death and Differentiation" (1995-1998), "Experimental Gerontology" (1998-present), "Mechanisms of Ageing and Development" (2000-present). Coordinator of the Biological Section of the Italian Gerontological Society (1994-1997). Coordinator of the Biological Study Session of the Italian Multicentric Study of centenarians. Member of the National Committee for the Italian National Project on Aging (1990-1996) of the Italian National Research Council. National Contact Point of the Italian Minister of Scientific Research for the Fifth BIOMED Programme of the European Union. Invited at NIA (Bethesda, 1996, 1998, 2000) as member of expert panelists on the Genetics of Human Longevity. Invited speaker at several International Conferences and Congress.

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• Evgeniy Galimov
  Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, London, UK

Evgeniy Galimov, Ph.D., Research Associate at Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London

Evgeniy Galimov is a researcher and data scientist with experience in research in ageing and age-related diseases. He studied bioengineering and bioinformatics and received PhD from Lomonosov Moscow State University. Evgeniy’s early research was devoted to molecular mechanisms of cancer, atherosclerosis and neurodegeneration, later he switched to modelling the evolution of ageing and published several papers about it. Evgeniy also has start-up experience and applied machine learning to predict lifespan in model organisms and coronary heart disease in patients based on blood biomarkers. Additionally, Dr. Galimov developed a deep-learning model capable of classifying lifespan in C. elegans and identifying morphological features that influence the prediction. Currently, Dr. Galimov is engaged in Real World Evidence health data research focused on age-related pathologies.

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• Lorenzo Galluzzi
  Weill Cornell Medical College, NY, NY, USA

Lorenzo Galluzzi. PhD, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology in Radiation Oncology with the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

Honorary Assistant Professor Adjunct with the Department of Dermatology of the Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, CT, USA), Honorary Associate Professor with the Faculty of Medicine of the Paris Descartes University (Paris, France), and Faculty Member with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy) and the Graduate School of Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova (Padova, Italy). Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medical College (2017), Lorenzo Galluzzi was a Junior Scientist of the Research Team “Apoptosis, Cancer and Immunity” at the Cordeliers Research Center (Paris, France; 2012-2016). Lorenzo Galluzzi did his post-doctoral training at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center (Villejuif, France; 2009-2011), after receiving his PhD from the Paris Sud University (Le Kremlin-Bicetre, France; 2005-2008). He is also Associate Director of the European Academy for Tumor Immunology (EATI), Co-chair of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Immunogenic Cell Death Working Group, and Founding Member of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology (ERI-ICP). Lorenzo Galluzzi is best known for major experimental and conceptual contributions to the fields of cell death, autophagy, tumor metabolism and tumor immunology. In particular, he provided profound insights into the links between adaptive stress responses in cancer cells and the activation of a clinically relevant tumor-targeting immune response in the context of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Lorenzo Galluzzi has published more than 400 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals. According to a survey published by Lab Times, he is currently the 6th and the youngest of the 30 most-cited European cell biologists (relative to the period 2007–2013), and he was nominated Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (formerly, Thomson Reuter) in 2016 and 2018.

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• David Gems
  Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, UK

David Gems is Professor of Biogerontology, and Research Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London, UK

He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Sussex University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Glasgow University. After a postdoc at Imperial College London he obtained a fellowship to study the biology of ageing with Don Riddle at the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. He then returned to the UK with a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to start his own lab at UCL in 1997. His work uses the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to try to identify general principles that govern the development of diseases of ageing (or to put it another way: to understand the underlying causes of senescence).

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• Vadim Gladyshev
  Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Vadim Gladyshev, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gladysgev is also Director of the Center for Redox Medicine and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Vadim Gladyshev's primary research focuses on understanding the mechanisms behind aging, lifespan control, and rejuvenation. His work spans various dimensions of biology, including selenium biochemistry and redox biology, but is most notably recognized for his contributions to the study of longevity and the aging process. In 2021, he was elected member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences.

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• Myriam Gorospe
  National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA

Myriam Gorospe, PhD, Senior Investigator, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

Dr. Gorospe received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany in 1993 and completed post-doctoral training at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), where she has been Senior Investigator and head of the RNA Regulation Section since 2003. Her group studies post-transcriptional gene regulation in mammalian models of cellular stress, cell division, replicative senescence, and aging. Her research program investigates the influence of RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs on the expression of proteins implicated in these processes.

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• Leonard Guarente
  MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Leonard Pershing Guarente, Ph.D., MIT Novartis Professor of Biology, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Leonard Guarente formerly studied gene regulation in eukaryotes (1980-1995). In these early studies, his lab first purified the TATA-binding protein TBP and cloned the gene, discovered UASs, identified the first heteromeric transcription factor (HAP2/3/4/5), and provided the first evidence for coactivators. He then turned his studies to the mechanism of aging and its regulation using yeast and subsequently higher organisms. His lab began studying aging in 1991 and showed SIR2 is a critical longevity gene in yeast and C. elegans His lab discovered the novel biochemical activity of the SIR2 gene product - NAD-dependent protein deacetylase. This activity suggested that SIR2 might link diet to aging, addressing the longstanding question of how calorie restriction (CR) slows aging. His lab established a system to study CR in yeast and showed that CR extended the life span in yeast mother cells by activating SIR2. More recently, his lab has made several findings regarding the mammalian ortholog of SIR2, SIRT1. Importantly, it controls several physiological processes impacted by CR. First, Sirt1 renders cells stress resistant by inhibiting pro-apoptotic transcription factors p53 and forkhead. Second, Sirt1 also regulates many metabolic functions influenced by diet, for example the mobilization of fat from white adipocytes upon food limitation, and the increase in muscle maintenance during CR. These findings show that the life and health extension by CR are not passive events, but result from the activation of Sirt1, which then impacts on cellular and organismal processes to deliver the benefits. More recently, his and other labs have linked SIRT1 to protection against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and osteoporosis in mouse models. Dr. Guarente received his B. S. from MIT and his Ph. D. at Harvard, under the supervision of Jon Beckwith. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with Mark Ptashne and has been on the faculty of MIT since 1981, where he is the Novartis Professor of Biology. His book Ageless Quest (Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2003) describes the pathway of discovery of SIR2 as a key regulator of life span in response to diet.

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• Andrei Gudkov
  Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY, USA

Andrei V. Gudkov, PhD, DSci, Professor and Garman Family Chair in Cell Stress Biology, Senior Vice President for Basic Research of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (RPCI), Buffalo, NY.

His academic degrees in experimental oncology and molecular biology were received in former USSR from National Cancer Center and Moscow State University. He is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. and Tartis, Inc. His area of general research interest includes drug discovery, gene discovery, molecular targets for cancer treatment.

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• Katerina Gurova
  Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY, USA

Dr. Katerina Gurova, Director of Drug Discovery Lab/Small Molecule Screening Shared Resource, Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY

Dr. Gurova is specializing in Drug Discovery, Chromatin biology, Regulation of transcription and 3D nuclear architecture.

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• Michael Hall
  University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Michael N. Hall, PH.D., Professor of Biochemistry, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Michael N. Hall received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the Biozentrum of the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1987 where he is currently Professor of Biochemistry. Dr. Hall is a world leader in the fields of TOR signaling and cell growth control. He discovered TOR (Target of Rapamycin) and subsequently elucidated its role as a central controller of cell growth. TOR is a conserved, nutrient-activated protein kinase. The discovery of TOR led to a fundamental change in how one thinks of cell growth. It is not a spontaneous process that just happens when building blocks (nutrients) are available, but rather a highly regulated, plastic process controlled by TOR-dependent signaling pathways. As a central controller of cell growth, TOR plays a key role in development and aging, and is implicated in disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.

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• Philip Hanawalt
  Stanford University, CA, USA

Professor Philip Hanawalt, Ph.D., is Howard H. and Jessie T. Watkins University Professor in the biological sciences department and Professor of dermatology at Stanford University.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, since 1989. Phil Hanawalt has been a productive researcher in the field of DNA repair since his pioneering discovery of repair replication in E. coli in 1963. He is an author of more than 250 papers, Senior Editor of Cancer Res and member of editorial boards of several journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. and Mechanisms of Ageing and Development

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• Nissim Hay
  University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Nissim Hay, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.

His laboratory laid the groundwork for the role the serine/threonine kinase Akt as the major downstream effector of growth factor mediated cell survival. The laboratory showed for the first time that Akt is sufficient and required for the activation of mTORC1 by growth factors

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• Siegfried Hekimi
  McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Siegfried Hekimi, Ph.D., Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Siegfried Hekimi took his undergraduate degree and his PhD in Biology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He then stayed as a fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, where he started his studies with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In 1992 he started his own laboratory in the department of Biology at McGill University in Montréal where he holds the Strathcona Chair of Zoology and the Campbell Chair of Developmental Biology. His research, which now also extends to mice, is currently focused on how mitochondrial function and lipoprotein metabolism relate to the aging process.

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• Stephen L. Helfand
  Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

Stephen L. Helfand, MD, Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry in the Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University

Dr. Helfand received his BS at Stanford University where he discovered the neuronal growth factor later renamed Ciliary Neuro Trophic Factor. Dr. Helfand obtained his MD degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed his Medical Internship at Montefiore Medical Center and his Neurology Residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Board Certified in Neurology. After Postdoctoral training at Stanford and at Yale he took a position at the University of Connecticut Health Center where from 1990 to 2005. In 2005 he moved to Brown University as Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry in the Division of Biology and Medicine. Dr. Helfand's laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying aging and longevity using the model system, Drosophila melanogaster. Dr. Helfand is an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar, recipient of a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, RO1 awards and a MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging. His recent work on the molecular genetics of aging has appeared in journals including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cell Metabolism, Current Biology and Aging (Impact Aging).

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• Jan H.J. Hoeijmakers
  Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jan H.J. Hoeijmakers, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Dr. Hoeijmakers is a Dutch molecular biologist, biochemist, and molecular geneticist. He is the author or co-author of over 490 scientific publications investigating DNA damage repair, cancer, aging, nutrition and other topics. He is a member of prestigious scientific organizations: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and European Molecular Biology Organization. He received Spinoza Prize, the highest Dutch science award, Queen Wilhelmina Research Award from the Dutch Society for Cancer Research, Van Gogh award from the Dutch Organization for Science and other.

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• Steve Horvath
  Altos Labs, Cambridge Institute of Science, San Diego, CA, USA

Dr. Steve Horvath is Professor, Principal Investigator at the Altos Labs Cambridge Institute of Science

Prior to joining Altos, Steve Horvath was a Professor of Human Genetics and Biostatistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Horvath's research lies at the intersection of aging research, epidemiology, chronic diseases, epigenetics, genetics, and systems biology. He works on all aspects of biomarker development with a particular focus on genomic biomarkers of aging. He developed several epigenetic clocks based on DNA methylation data. Salient features of this epigenetic clock include its high accuracy and its applicability to a broad spectrum of tissues and cell types. In epidemiological studies, Horvath co-authored the first articles demonstrating that epigenetic age predicts life-expectancy and is positively associated with obesity, HIV infection, Down syndrome, cognitive decline, Huntington's disease, early menopause, Werner syndrome. Using genome-wide association studies, his team identified the first genetic markers (SNPs) that exhibit genome-wide significant associations with epigenetic aging rates. Horvath developed widely used systems biologic approaches (notably weighted correlation network analysis, WGCNA) which lend themselves for integrating gene expression-, DNA methylation-, microRNA, genetic marker-, and complex phenotype data.

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• Stephen P. Jackson
  University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Stephen P. Jackson, Ph.D., Professor, Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories The Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Steve Jackson is well known for his pioneering work on cellular responses to DNA damage, particularly events regulated by DNA-damage-activated protein kinases. His group identified many key DNA-damage-response proteins and established how they interact with damaged DNA and with one another in regulated ways. Steve's research also helped us understand how such proteins impinge on telomere maintenance and on chromatin structure, and revealed that impairments in these responses cause genome instability, immune deficiency and cell-cycle progression defects. In 1997, Steve founded KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd, to transfer knowledge of DNA repair to medical applications. KuDOS, acquired in 2006 by Astra Zeneca, is now conducting several Phase 1 and Phase 2 oncology trials and has other products in pre-clinical development. Steve's academic group maintains strong scientific links with KuDOS, but research in his lab remains independent of the company.

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• Heinrich Jasper
  Regenerative Medicine, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, USA

Heinrich Jasper, PhD, Principal Fellow, Regenerative Medicine, Research Biology, Regenerative Medicine, Genentech, CA, USA

Dr. Jasper received his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, where he studied transcriptional regulation of developmental processes in Drosophila. He became a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center in 2003, and an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester in 2005. He continued his research as Professor the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Jasper received a Senior Fellow Award of the Ellison Medical Foundation in 2008 and a Glenn Foundation Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging in 2010. His work was and is funded by the American Federation for Aging Research, National Institute of Aging, National Eye Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, New York Stem Cell Initiative, and the Ellison Medical Foundation.

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• Pankaj Kapahi
  The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA

Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, Associate Professor, Buck Institute, Novato, CA, USA

The overall focus of the Kapahi laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms of aging, with a particular emphasis on Dietary Restriction (DR) which has been show to extend lifespan in species as diverse as yeast, worms, fruit flies and rodents. The Kapahi lab was the first to identify the role of target of rapamycin (TOR), a molecular pathway which is involved in nutrient sensing in all species ranging from plants to humans, in mediating lifespan extension by DR. Research in the Kapahi lab proposes that changes in mRNA translation downstream of the TOR pathway are key mediators of its lifespan effects. His laboratory is employing an interdisciplinary approach combining biochemical, genetic and genomic techniques, to understand how DR mediates changes in lifespan and metabolism using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans and mammalian cell culture systems. Due to the robustness of TOR and its strong conservation across species, identifying the molecular mechanisms that modulate lifespan upon DR holds great promise for finding potential targets for enhancing healthspan in humans. Work in the lab also has the broader significance to help uncover the role of nutrition and identify therapeutics for age-related human diseases like cancer, diabetes and neurodegeneration. Dr. Kapahi did his Ph.D. with Dr. Tom Kirkwood at the University of Manchester, UK and his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Michael Karin at University of California, San Diego and Dr. Seymour Benzer at California Institute of Technology. Dr. Kapahi is a recipient of the Ellison Medical foundation New Scholar award, Eureka award from the NIH and the Nathan Shock New Investigator Award from The American Geronotological Society.

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• Jan Karlseder
  The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

Jan Karlseder, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

Dr. Karlseder is a Senior Vice President at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research and the holder of the Donald and Darlene Shiley Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The Karlseder lab focuses on understanding the roles of mammalian telomeres in the cell division process, on telomere metabolism during the cell cycle, and on the roles of telomeres in proliferative boundaries and cancer initiation.

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• Cynthia Kenyon
  University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D., member of the National Academy of Sciencs, American Cancer Society Professor and Director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging

Cynthia Kenyon received her PhD from MIT in 1981, where, in Graham Walker's laboratory, she was the first to look for genes on the basis of their expression profiles, discovering that DNA damaging agents activate a battery of DNA repair genes in E. coli. She then did postdoctoral studies with Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, studying the development of C. elegans. Since 1986 she has been at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was the Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and is now an American Cancer Society Professor. In 1993, Kenyon and colleagues' discovery that a single-gene mutation could double the lifespan of C. elegans sparked an intensive study of the molecular biology of aging. These findings have now led to the discovery that an evolutionarily conserved hormone signaling system controls aging in other organisms as well, including mammals. Dr. Kenyon has received many honors and awards for her findings. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine and she is a past president of the Genetics Society of America. She is now the director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at UCSF.

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• James L. Kirkland
  Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Physiology and Professor of Medicine, Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

Dr. Kirkland’s research focuses on cellular senescence, age-related adipose tissue and metabolic dysfunction, and development of agents and strategies for targeting fundamental aging mechanisms to treat age-related chronic diseases and disabilities and to extend healthspan. He is a scientific advisory board member for several companies and academic organizations. In addition to being President of AFAR, he has been a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, and past chair of the Biological Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America. He is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, geriatrics, and endocrinology and metabolism.

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• Guido Kroemer
  Université Paris Cité, Sorbonne Université, Equipe 11 Labellisée par la Ligue Contre le Cancer, Inserm U1138, Paris, France

Guido Kroemer, M.D., Ph.D, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris Cité, Director of the research team "Metabolism, Cancer and Immunity" of the French Medical Research Council (INSERM)

Guido Kroemer is also Director of the Metabolomics and Cell Biology platforms of the Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Hospital Practitioner at the Hôpital Européen George Pompidou, Paris, France, President of the European Academy of Tumor Immunology (EATI), and President-elect of the European Network for Cancer Immunotherapy (ENCI). He is best known for the discovery that permeabilization of mitochondrial membranes constitutes a decisive step in programmed cell death. DR. Kroemer has explored the fine mechanisms of mitochondrial cell death control, the molecular pathways that explain the inhibition of cell death in cancer cells, upstream of or at the level of mitochondria, and the mechanisms that make cancer cell death immunogenic. He is a member of multiple scientific academies in Europe including Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the national academy of Germany, and European Academy of Sciences. He is winner of many prestigious prizes and awards. He is one of the most highly cited authors in cell biology.

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• Titia de Lange
  Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA

Titia de Lange, Ph.D. member of the National Academy of Sciences, Leon Hess Professor, Rockefeller University, NY, NY, USA

Dr. de Lange is an elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the American Society for Microbiology, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. Among numerous awards, she received the National Institutes of Health's Director's Pioneer Award in 2005, the Charlotte Friend Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research in 2004, an honorary degree from the University of Utrecht in 2003, and the first Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research in 2001.

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• Arnold Levine
  The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

Arnold J. Levine, Ph.D. member of the National Academy, Professor Emeritus, The Simons Center for Systems Biology in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

Arnold Levine is a widely acclaimed leader in cancer research, his research focuses on the causes of cancer. He established the Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute, which concentrates on research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences: on genetics and genomics, polymorphisms and molecular aspects of evolution, signal transduction pathways and networks, stress responses, and pharmacogenomics in cancer biology. He was awarded the 1998 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biology or Biochemistry and was the first recipient of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research in 2001 for his discovery of the tumor suppressor protein p53. In 2021 he received ASPIRE Award from the Mark Foundation for his work on breast cancer research.

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• Michael P. Lisanti
  University of Salford, Salford, UK

Michael P. Lisanti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Translational Medicine, University of Salford, Salford, UK

Dr. Lisanti, has been an active research scientist for over 35 years, driving research into tumour metabolism and the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers. Currently, he has 581 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He obtained his MD-PhD degrees at Cornell University Medical College in Cell Biology and Genetic and was affiliated with many distinguished institutions: Fellowship at the Whitehead Institute at MIT and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 2006 he was selected for the leadership of the Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics of Cancer in Kimmel Cancer. In 2009, he became the Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. In 2012 he joined the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit as Professor of Cancer Biology, at The University of Manchester (UK). His current research programme focuses on interactions between the tumour and the host, and repurposing existing drugs as novel cancer therapies.

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• Lawrence A. Loeb
  University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Lawrence A. Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; retirement in 2023

Dr. Lawrence Loeb is a cancer researcher and genome scientist. He is a professor of pathology and biochemistry at the University of Washington. The major focus of his research is the relationship between mutations and human cancer. Loeb is best known for his work on the fidelity of DNA polymerase, and his proposal of the mutator phenotype hypothesis in cancers.

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• Valter Longo
  University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Valter D. Longo, Ph.D., Edna Jones Professor in Gerontology and Biological Science in University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Valter D. Longo is also the Director of the USC Longevity Institute where he has been since 1997. He is interested in understanding the fundamental mechanisms of aging in yeast, mice and humans by using genetics and biochemistry techniques. He is also interested in identifying the molecular pathways conserved from simple organisms to humans that can be modulated to protect against multiple stresses and treat or prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease and other diseases of aging. The focus is on the signal transduction pathways that regulate resistance to oxidative damage in yeast and mice. His lab studies the molecular pathways that regulate resistance to stress, aging, and disease prevention in yeast, mice and humans, with focus on signal transduction, oxidative stress, genomic instability, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

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• Gerry Melino
  University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Gerry Melino, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Dr. Melino is Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Rome-Tor Vergata, member of Accademia Lincei and Accademia Europaea, oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions. He is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of 3 journals, member of several other Editorial Boards and Scientific Advisor for several Governmental Institutions. His scientific interest focuses upon programmed cell death in epidermal and neural models, and in particular on the p53 family – p63 and p73, in cancer progression.

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• Simon Melov
  The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA

Simon Melov, Ph.D., Professor & Director of Genomics, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA

The Melov lab takes a multidisciplinary geroscience approach to better understand the core mechanisms that drive aging. This includes a heavy reliance on multiple model systems, including invertebrate models, mammalian models (the laboratory mouse), human cell lines and tissues, and state-of-the-art genomic technologies that rely on heavy computational methods to better understand how cells and tissues change with age and/or pharmacological intervention. The objective of the work is Identifying molecular hallmarks of aging to guide the development of anti-aging therapies.

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• Alexey Moskalev
  Komi Science Center of RAS, Syktyvkar, Russia

Alexey Moskalev, PhD, Dr.Sci, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology and Gerontology, Institute of Biology, Komi Science Center of RAS, Syktyvkar Russia

Dr. Moskalev is a Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences. He is focusing on the effect of low dose ionizing radiation on lifespan and aging of Drosophila strains with defects in apoptosis, DNA repair, and defense genes. He is also studying mechanisms of aging, longevity and stress resistance in animal models. He was a contributor in creating a database of biomarkers of aging Digital Ageing Atlas and databases of anti-aging drugs. He is the author of more than 100 publications in the area of genetics of aging and longevity and radiation genetics. He is a member of the editorial boards of Ageing research reviews, Aging, Biogerontology, Frontiers in Genetics of Aging, Aging and disease, Gerontology, Advances in Gerontology.

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• Masashi Narita
  University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Masashi Narita, MD. PhD., Professor, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute University of Cambridge, UK

Dr. Narita is a Senior group leader of the lab of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute since it was opened in 2007. His research is focusing on understanding mechanisms of cellular response to the stresses, such as cellular senescence and apoptosis, how stress affects our cells, causing them to age and stop working properly.

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• Andre Nussenzweig
  National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

Andre Nussenzweig, Ph.D., Head, Molecular Recombination Section, Senior Investigator

Dr. Nussenzweig is a leading contributor to the study of mechanisms that maintain genomic stability and prevent cancer. His laboratory has elucidated many fundamental features of DNA damage and repair proteins and revealed the critical role they play in both normal and pathogenic states. He is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the US National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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• William C. Orr
  Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

William C. Orr, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Biological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

His principal research focus lies in the use of transgenic and genetic models to examine mechanisms involved in the aging process, with emphasis on testing the Oxidative Stress Hypothesis of Aging.

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• Thomas Rando
  University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Thomas A. Rando, MD, PhD, Director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center

Dr. Rando is a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University Emeritus Faculty - University Medical Line; Chief Neurology Service VA Palo Alto Health Care System; Deputy Director, Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL). As a Director, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center Dr. Rando promotes a culture of scientific excellence, academic integrity and interdisciplinary collaboration. The main focus of his laboratory is the molecular regulation of stem cell function. Rando studies the basic mechanisms of stem cell biology and the biology of aging. He seeks to understand how environmental influences affect the aging of stem cells and how alterations of those environmental factors can delay or reverse age-related changes.

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• Michael Ristow
  Institute for Experimental Endocrinology and Diabetology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany

Michael Ristow, MD, PhD, is a Professor in Institute for Experimental Endocrinology and Diabetology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany

For the past ten years, Michael Ristow was Professor of Energy Metabolism in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). His research focuses on the development of age-related diseases, what role is played by the molecular mechanisms underlying metabolism, and how do they influence life expectancy. He is interested in the biochemical and molecular basis of longevity in particular the role played by mitochondria in lifespan regulation. Contrary to the widely reiterated Free Radical Theory of Aging, Ristow has repeatedly shown that the health-promoting effects associated with low caloric intake, physical exercise and other lifespan-extending interventions may be due to increased formation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) within the mitochondria, causing a vaccination-like adaptive response that culminates in increased stress resistance and extended longevity, a process a. k. a. mitochondrial hormesis or mitohormesis. He works with the roundworm C. elegans and mammalian model organisms, as well as humans.

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• Igor B. Roninson
  College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

Igor B. Roninson, Ph.D., SmartState Endowed Chair, Deputy Director, Center for Targeted Therapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina

Education: Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982. Professor at Ordway Research Institute, Director of Cancer Center, Ordway Research Institute, Research Professor of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Adjunct Professor of Biology, State University of New York at Albany, Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Albany Medical College

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• Michael R. Rose
  University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Michael R. Rose, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Michael Rose is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, and Director of the Network for Experimental Research on Evolution, a University of California Multicampus Research Program. His primary area of research is the evolution, genetics, and physiology of aging in fruit flies. He also works on the application of fruit fly research to human aging and chronic disease. The author of more than 200 scientific articles, he has also published a variety of books, including Evolutionary Biology of Aging, Darwin's Spectre, Methuselah Flies, and The Long Tomorrow.

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• K Lenhard Rudolph
  Leibniz Institute on Aging, Fritz Lipmann Institute, Jena, Germany

K Lenhard Rudolph, Ph.D., Group Leader of Research Group on Stem Cell and Metabolism Aging, Leibniz Institute on Aging, Fritz Lipmann Institute, Jena, Germany

The main discoveries in the past five years have related to our research on aging-related changes in metabolism and stem cells. This work has led us to the discovery of dietary interventions that improve stem cell and organ function when applied in old age.

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• David M. Sabatini
  IOCB, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS, Czechia, Boston branch, Boston, MA, USA

David M. Sabatini is a Senior Group Leader, IOCB, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS, Czech Republic; will lead IOCB new branch in Boston, USA officially opened in October 2024

David M. Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D. is a former Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from 2002 to 2021, he was a member a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He has been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2008 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016. He is known for his important contributions in the areas of cell signaling and cancer metabolism, most notably the discovery and study of mTOR, a protein kinase that is an important regulator of cell and organismal growth that is deregulated in cancer, diabetes, as well as the aging process.

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• Alberto Sanz
  University of Glasgow, UK

Alberto Sanz, PhD, Wellcome Senior Research Fellow, Lord Kelvin/ Adam Smith Professor at Institute of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Dr. Sanz's lab research is focusing on 2 directions: Healthy Aging: understanding determinants of healthy ageing, from basic mechanisms to senotherapies, providing a holistic approach to health span. Mitochondria & Redox Biology: mitochondria biogenesis and function in health and disease, signaling processes underpinning mitophagy, mitochondria in ageing, and redox and unfolded protein stress responses in the mitochondria and the ER.

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• John Sedivy
  Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

John M. Sedivy, Ph.D., Hermon C. Bumpus Professor of Biology and Professor of Medical Science, Brown University, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Laboratories for Molecular Medicine, Providence RI, USA

Dr. Sedivy is an Associate Dean and Director of Center for the Biology of Aging. His research is focusing the epigenetic regulation of cellular senescence, genome-wide surveillance of transposable elements, and Myc-regulated gene networks led to an involvement in bioinformatics and systems biology. He has published over 130 original articles in addition to writing the first comprehensive book on gene targeting in 1992. He maintains an active role in the field of aging, as a founding member (and current chair) of the CMAD study section at the National Institutes of Health.

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• Manuel Serrano
  Cambridge Institute of Science, Altos Labs, Cambridge, UK

Manuel Serrano, PhD, Principal Investigator at the Altos Labs Cambridge Institute of Science

Manuel Serrano obtained his PhD in 1991 at the University of Madrid for research on DNA replication under the supervision of Margarita Salas. From 1992 to 1996, Manuel worked as postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Beach, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY, USA). During this time, Manuel made his most important discovery with the cloning and characterization of p16, which defined a new class of cell cycle regulators and was soon recognized as a key tumor suppressor. In 1997, Manuel returned to Spain as an independent investigator, initially at the National Center of Biotechnology, and since 2003 at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center directed by Mariano Barbacid. The main contributions of Manuel during these years have been related to the concept of oncogene-induced senescence as a tumor suppression mechanism, the role of p19Arf as an oncogenic sensor, the generation of novel mouse models with increased cancer resistance, and the identification of senescent tumor cells within premalignant tumors. More recently, Manuel's laboratory has discovered a cis-regulatory element at the p16 and p19Arf locus, has dissected the role of DNA damage and oncogenic signaling in p53-mediated cancer protection, and has reported the anti-aging activity of the Arf/p53 module.

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• Gerald S. Shadel
  Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

Gerald S. Shadel, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

Gerald S. Shadel is Audrey Geisel Chair in Biomedical Science and Director, San Diego-Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. Dr. Gerald Shadel studies the basic biology of mitochondria, essential organelles inside most cells. He identified novel ways that mitochondria contribute to disease, aging and the immune system.

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• Norman E. Sharpless
  University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Norman Sharpless, Professor of Cancer Policy and Innovation at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Dr. Sharpless is interested in cancer therapeutics, novel cancer diagnostics and the intersection of healthcare policy and cancer care. Dr. Sharpless is the former Director of the National Cancer Institute (2017-2022) and Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2019). Before that appointment, Dr. Sharpless was the Director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (2014-2017), and a Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Genetics at UNC-Chapel Hill (2012-2017).




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• Clemens Steegborn
  University of Bayreuth, Germany

Clemens Steegborn, Professor Department of Biochemistry, University of Bayreuth, Germany


Dr. Clemens Steegborn is an academic researcher contributing to research in topics: molecular signaling mechanisms in aging and aging-related diseases, Sirtuin and Chemistry.

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• George Thomas
  University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

George Thomas, M.D., Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

He is the Scientific Director of the Metabolic Disease Institute, and holds the John and Gladys Strauss Chair in Cancer Research. He is recognized for the purification and cloning of the cell-signaling molecules S6K1 and S6K2. Dr. Thomas's laboratory is focused on elucidating the role of these kinases in cell growth, and is responsible for the identification of the upstream regulatory components that control their activity, including the TSC1/TSC2 tumor suppressor complex. Recently, the Thomas group has focused on the role that this pathway plays in the regulation of appetite and energy balance, the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and diabetes, and the pathogenesis of cancer-related syndromes such as type 1 neurofibromatosis. The Thomas laboratory has recently shown that S6K1 plays a critical role in a negative feedback loop to monitor insulin signaling, and is following up on this observation to study how the pathologies underlying cancer, obesity and diabetes are intimately linked through mTOR/S6K signaling.

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• Jonathan L. Tilly
  Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

Jonathan L. Tilly, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Biology, Northeastern University, College of Science, Boston, MA, USA

Dr. Tilly is recognized for more than 20 years he is working in research in women's health and fertility. The work is directed at elucidating the mechanisms responsible for normal (aging-associated) and premature ovarian failure. Much of his earlier studies focused on the genes pathways that activate or repress apoptosis in female germ cells (oocytes), and how prevention of oocyte death could be used to extend the functional lifespan of the ovaries into advanced ages. More recently, the Tilly laboratory has re-directed its efforts towards defining the contribution of rare oocyte-producing or oogonial stem cells (OSCs) to development, function and failure of adult mammalian ovaries. The goal of his lab research is to promote a deeper understanding of the genetic and epigenetic drivers of cell lineage specification, differentiation and death, and to then utilize the information gained from these studies for development of innovative new technologies to improve human health within and across generations. His papers are published extensively in top-tier journals including Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

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• John Tower
  University of Southern California, LA, CA, USA

John Tower, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

John Tower received his PhD in 1988 from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology Training Program, where he worked under the direction of Dr. Barbara Sollner-Webb on the topic of rDNA transcriptional regulation. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral training with Dr. Allan C. Spradling, at the Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Baltimore, working on Drosophila P element mutagenesis and chorion gene amplification. In 1991 he joined the faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, in what is now the Molecular and Computational Biology Program. Dr. Tower has been investigating the molecular genetics of aging in Drosophila since 1990, with a particular emphasis on transgenic technologies, hsps and superoxide dismutase. Additional topics of research in the Tower laboratory include real-time video tracking of animal movement and gene expression, and the role of p53 and the sex-determination pathway in aging.

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• Eric Verdin
  Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA

Eric Verdin, MD, Professor, President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA since 2016

Dr. Verdin obtained his MD degree from the University of Liege, Belgium, conducted his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and has held previous faculty positions at the University of Brussels, Belgium, at the NIH, and at the Picower Institute for Medical Research. His research has focused on the biology of reversible protein acetylation. His lab studies the relationship between aging and the immune system, how immune aging is regulated by nutrition. Recent contributions include the identification of several novel cellular targets for sirtuins and in particular, the role of mitochondrial sirtuins in metabolism and aging. Dr. Verdin is author or co-author of more than 120 articles and author on 15 patents. He serves as editor of Mol. Cell. Biology, PLoS ONE and Virology.

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• Gen Sheng Wu
  Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

Dr. Gen Sheng Wu is a Professor at Molecular Therapeutics Program, Karmanos Cancer Institute, Departments of Oncology and Pathology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA. His research interests are to understand the mechanisms of deregulated cell death pathways in human cancer and then target related pathways for the improvement of cancer therapies.

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• Thomas von Zglinicki
  Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK

Thomas von Zglinicki , Ph.D., Professor of Cellular Gerontology, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Dr. von Zglinicki is a founding member of the basic aging biology research at Newcastle. His principal research interest is in understanding the cellular and molecular signaling pathways connecting DNA damage responses with mitochondrial function and metabolism, thus causing and maintaining cell senescence, and how these contribute to mammalian ageing. He chaired the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Leibniz Institute for Environmental Medicine Dusseldorf (Germany) and is a member of the Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging SAB. In 2017 he received the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Medal for Services to Gerontology.

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• Alex Zhavoronkov
  Insilico Medicine, Cambridge, MA, USA

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Chairman of the Board, Executive Director and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Cambridge, MA, USA

Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine, a company applying latest advances in deep learning to drug discovery and biomarker development headquartered at the Emerging Technology Centers on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the CSO of the Biogerontology Research Foundation, a UK-based registered charity supporting aging research worldwide. He is also the director of the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP), the head of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at the Federal Clinical Research Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology in Russia and is the adjunct professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He holds two Bachelor Degrees from Queen’ s University, a Masters in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Moscow State University. He is co-organizing the Annual International Aging Research for Drug Discovery forum in Basel, Switzerland.

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• Judith Campisi (1948-2024)
  The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Novato, CA, USA
  

  We are saddened to announce the death of Aging Founding Editor, Judy Campisi, who passed on January 19, 2024. Dr. Campisi (1948-2024) was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and recipient of several awards, including two MERIT awards from the National Institute of Aging, the Olav Thon Foundation Prize and the Ipsen Foundation Longevity Prize. We all will remember Dr. Campisi for her passion in pursuing groundbreaking research that established cellular senescence as a key process in cancer and aging.

Judith Campisi, Ph.D., Professor, Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, CA, USA Dr. Campisi received a Ph.D. from the State University of New York Stony Brook and postdoctoral training at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. She was Assistant and Associate Professor in Biochemistry at the Boston University Medical School, and joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as Senior Scientist in 1991. In 2002, she moved part of her laboratory to the then newly-founded Buck Institute for Age Research. Campisi's work bridges the fields of cancer and aging, and includes contributions to understanding the evolution and mechanisms of tumor suppressor genes, the cellular damage responses of senescence and apoptosis, DNA repair mechanisms, telomere biology, and the role of genome maintenance in postponing aging and cancer. She has published >150 research papers, review articles and book chapters on her work, and has received several awards for her research. Her awards include a Cancer Scholar award from the American Cancer Society, Established Investigator award from the American Heart Association, two MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging, a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Irving Wright Award from the American Federation for Aging Research and Glenn Foundation Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Campisi serves or has served on numerous national and international scientific review panels, public and private scientific advisory panels, and the editorial boards of several scientific journals. Web links: http://www.Buckinstitute.org

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