Posted on January 13, 2009

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Salk Institute Receives $5 Million for Aging Research

The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, has announced a $5 million grant from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to launch a center for aging research.

The institute will join the nascent Glenn Consortium for Research in Aging and is the third institution after Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to receive significant funding from the foundation to study the molecular basis of aging. The Glen Center for Aging Research at Salk will draw from nine of the institute's leading laboratories specializing in genetic analysis, stem cell biology, and metabolism research to address the overarching goal of defining a healthy lifespan, or "healthspan," and discerning whether or not there is a defined biological process of aging that is universal to all organisms.

The biology of aging underlies all the major human diseases, said Glenn Foundation president Mark R. Collins, so understanding the process and being able to intervene could result in delaying the onset of disease, extending the healthful years of life, and reducing costs to society.

"The exponential growth of aging research in the last decade has clearly shown us that aging is a multi-faceted process in which several biological events interact to influence aging of an entire organism," said Andrew Dillin, associate professor of Salk's molecular and cell biology laboratory and head of the new aging research center. "Salk's well-established culture of collaboration puts us in an exceptional position to move aging research forward, and lay the foundation that may stave off a multitude of age-related diseases."

“Salk Institute Launches Center for Aging Research With $5 Million Donation by the Glenn Foundation.” Salk Institute Press Release 1/08/09.

Primary Subject: Health
Secondary Subject(s): Medical Research, Aging
Location(s): National

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