Buck Institute awarded $25 million to establish new scientific discipline of geroscience
The Buck Institute for Age Research is launching a new scientific discipline called Geroscience, which will be focused on the interface of normal aging and age-related disease. A five-year $25 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research will establish an Interdisciplinary Research Consortium in Geroscience at the Institute. The Buck received one of nine Roadmap awards granted in the U.S. This is the largest grant received by the Institute in its eight year history.
The interdisciplinary grants address health challenges that have been resistant to traditional research approaches. At the Buck Institute the award will allow scientists to employ novel and unconventional approaches to studying various diseases in the context of aging, which is the single largest risk factor for disease in developed countries. For example, researchers who study aging using worm models will be designing experiments with neuroscientists. Scientists studying nutrition and aging in fruit flies will be working on projects with a cancer specialist. Experts in human embryonic stem cells will be designing experiments with cancer and age researchers to understand how stem cells age and determine how tumor suppressor genes function as the cells develop. The award also establishes the nation’s first post-doctoral training program in Geroscience.