Grant: Operating Grant: Geroscience Demonstration Grants

Despite our concerted efforts and aspirations to live healthy, active lives, there is significant variability in the aging process, where some individuals age well and live long, but those on an unhealthy aging trajectory, age earlier and develop chronic diseases earlier than their healthy counterparts. We now know that although genetics contributes to how we age, it plays a relatively minor role and currently we still don't understand all the non-genetic factors associated with healthy or unhealthy aging. We do know however that the environment we grow in (even as fetuses and babies) contributes to how well and how fast we age. Our project will uncover markers that we believe are present very early in life, long before visible signs of aging begin. These markers will allow us to identify individuals that are on a path of unhealthy aging and permit us to design therapeutic interventions to assist these individuals to slow down their rate of aging to improve quality of life and enable them to continue to contribute to their community.