Life is too short. But does it have to be?
Many factors play into our health as older people, mainly environmental factors. 25 years of studying biology of aging has revealed an incredible amount of information on the effects of metabolism, diet, and molecular and cellular functions and how long we live and how healthy we are in late life. Much of these discoveries have been made in laboratory animals. It is fairly trivial to make Laboratory animals live longer and healthier but we must now use this knowledge to improve people’s lives.
The implications are huge. Heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, and many other age related diseases are now firmly under the microscope of scientists studying the biology of aging. It is nothing short of a transformation of medicine that will prevent disease. Pretty exciting!
Dr Gordon Lithgow
Gordon’s lab page: https://www.buckinstitute.org/lab/lithgow-lab/
A native of Scotland, Dr. Lithgow received his PhD from the University of Glasgow and obtained further training at Ciba Geigy AG in Basel, Switzerland, and at the University of Colorado. He established his lab studying the biology of aging at the University of Manchester, England, before moving it to the Buck Institute in 2000.
Dr. Lithgow has been recognized for his research with a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation, and the Tenovus Award for Biomedical Research. He has served on many national advisory panels in both the United Kingdom and the United States, including the National Institute on Aging’s Board of Scientific Councilors, and has served as the chair of biological sciences at the Gerontology Society of America.
Dr. Lithgow has partnered with a series of biotechnology companies in sponsored research agreements and has strong collaborations in preclinical aging research on diseases such as osteoporosis and Parkinson’s disease.
About The Buck Institute
The Buck’s success will ultimately change healthcare. The Buck Institute for Research on Aging aims to end the threat of age-related diseases for this and future generations by bringing together the most capable and passionate scientists from a broad range of disciplines to identify and impede the ways in which we age. An independent, nonprofit institution, its goal is to increase human healthspan, or the healthy years of life. Globally recognized as the pioneer and leader in efforts to target aging, the number one risk factor for serious chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, macular degeneration, atherosclerosis (heart attack and stroke), and type 2 diabetes, the Buck wants to help people live better longer.