Grant: Project Grant

Nature and nurture both contribute to how we metabolize and store food, and healthy aging. With previous CIHR funding we showed for the first time that a modest reduction in insulin secretion extends lifespan mammals. We also showed that reducing excess insulin improves insulin sensitivity, a hallmark of healthy. Caloric restriction and time-restricted feeding also lower insulin and improve insulin sensitivity, both in experimental animals and in people and we next plan to conduct experiments to further understand the relationship between energy metabolism and aging. Specifically, we are request a continuation of this highly successful research program so that we can conduct critical experiments designed to determine how a small reduction in insulin can have such positive effects. We have already conducted unbiased surveys that revealed clues as to the mechanism of life extension in our model and we must now validate and elaborate on our recent work. The findings are likely to translate to humans, where high circulating insulin is a prominent feature of the emerging worldwide epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes and human lifespan is predicted to fall for the first time in recorded history.