• Norm Wolf, DVM, PhD
• James Joseph, PhD
• Paula Bickford, PhD (Chairperson)
• Mark Lane, PhD

• Donna Cini
• Barbara Boyd
• Helen Harman
• David Kekich 

• Aubrey de Grey, PhD
• Gregory Fahy, PhD
• Robert Floyd, PhD
• S. Mitchell Harman, MD, PhD
• John Holloszy, MD
• James Joseph, PhD
• Mark Lane, PhD
• Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD
• Julie Mattison, PhD
• George Roth, PhD
• Mark A. Smith, PhD
• MaryLou Voytko, PhD
• Norman S. Wolf, DVM, PhD

Arthur K. Balin, MD, PhD, FACP

Dr. Balin is Medical Director of The Sally Balin Medical Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery in Media, PA.  This ambulatory surgical facility in suburban Philadelphia is the site of Dr. Balin's practice in treatment of skin cancer, wound healing and the problems of aging skin.  Dr. Balin graduated from Northwestern University and completed his medical degree (M.D.) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.  He has taught courses on such subjects as dermatology, skin surgery and anatomy. He is Clinical Professor in the Department of Dermatology at MCP/Hahnemann School of Medicine as well as Research Professor of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at MCP/Hahnemann School of Medicine.   Dr. Balin is an active member of more than 50 professional and academic societies.  He has written numerous research papers on basic aging research, nutrition, wound healing and clinical and experimental dermatology.  He was one of the first scientists to grow human skin in the laboratory and to then take the skin and place it on wounds to help them heal.  He serves on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of several journals and organizations.  His specific focus is the ameliorization of cutaneous disease associated with the aging process.  He is particularly interested in skin cancer and wound healing in the elderly. 

Dr. Balin is currently serving as Treasurer and Executive Director of the American Aging Association.

Gregory M. Fahy, Ph.D., has been interested in aging since childhood.  He read his first book on aging while in high school.  He obtained his B.S. from the University of California at Irvine, where he taught a course on aging as an undergraduate.  He obtained his Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1977 from the Medical College of Georgia.  He joined the American Red Cross in 1977 to pursue the unusual goal of completely arresting biological aging processes by using cryogenic temperatures to stop biological time.  Because organ failure is a leading cause of death among the elderly, having banks of replacement organs available could be a practical way of treating aging and extending lifespan even after more direct interventions into the aging process itself have failed.   In 1980, he conceived of the possibility of vitrifying (arresting in a glassy state) mammalian organs awaiting transplantation in order to avoid injury at cryogenic temperatures and has pursued this goal ever since.  In parallel, he also pursued more direct research on aging by founding The Lifespan Company, Inc. and conducting mouse lifespan studies of several popular nutrients and drugs with purported life-extending effects.  His article on the possible utility of coenzyme Q₁₀ for slowing aging in 1983 ultimately resulted in one of the most popular nutritional supplements in the world.  During the 1980s he popularized biomedical aging research by writing extensive reports on aging research meetings and describing laboratory examples of aging reversal in several public lectures.  In 1991 he summarized evidence for physiological regulation of aging in the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine.   In the mid 1990s, he began the first known clinical experiments on reversal of age-related thymic involution, recently publishing his initial results in Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine.  In 1995, he and his research team moved from the American Red Cross’ Jerome Holland Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland to the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, where he became Head of the Tissue Cryopreservation Project.  He also co-founded and became Chief Scientist of Organ, Inc. and became Chief Scientist of Life Resuscitation Technologies, Inc., both of which focused on the treatment of organ failure, including heart attacks and strokes.  In 1998, he moved to California to become the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of 21st Century Medicine, Inc., where he continues to direct research on the cryopreservation of organ and tissue replacements.  He has 128 scientific publications, is the primary inventor on 18 issued US patents, and has published over a dozen popular articles about topics in aging intervention.  He has given 74 invited scientific presentations and has made 18 appearances on television and radio about topics pertinent to aging.  He was the Editor of AGE News from 1995-2000 and has served past terms on the AGE Board.  He is currently on the editorial boards of Rejuvenation Research and Cell Preservation Technology.  He is a frequent contributor to Life Extension Magazine and continues to conduct private research on practical clinical anti-aging interventions. 

Dr. Floyd is the Merrick Foundation Chair in Aging Research and Program Head of the Free Radical Biology and Aging Research Program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. His research involves the role of reactive nitrogen species (RNS) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in diseases of aging, especially brain aging, as well as events that occur in carcinogenesis. His research has involved the mechanism of action of nitrone-based free radical traps in their neuroprotective activity in neurodegenerative diseases and their anti-cancer activity in experimental models of cancer. He co-founded Centaur Pharmaceuticals in 1992 that started the commercialization of nitrones in stroke and other age-related disease.  This early effort helped lead to the selection of one nitrone, NXY-059, that is now in phase 3 clinical trials for stroke under the developmental leadership of Renovis and AstraZeneca.

An entrepreneur and scientist, John Furber has been studying the biology of aging and regeneration for 20 years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Mathematics from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a Master of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Irvine.  Mr. Furber founded Legendary Pharmaceuticals in 2000 to develop pharmaceutical drugs and gene therapies which repair and reverse progressive damage to mitochondria and lysosomes, in order to prevent and treat serious, late-onset diseases commonly associated with aging.

Dr. Harman first proposed a theory of aging as the indiscriminate chemical reactivity of free radicals possibly leading to random biological damage. His idea has met with much experimental success, and is now considered a major theory of aging. The theory implies that antioxidants such as vitamins E and C, which prevent free radicals from oxidizing (removing electrons from) sensitive biological molecules, will slow the aging process. Dr. Harman launched his theory by showing, for the first time, that feeding a variety of antioxidants to mammals was able to extend their life spans.

Mr. Kekich founded the country's largest life insurance master general agency, which raised $3.1 billion of premium income for First Executive Corp., co-founded the country's biggest private stock loan company and arranged venture capital funding for private companies for 11 years. He is a recognized expert on private investing and authored the venture capital handbook "How The Rich Get Richer With Quiet Private Investments". Mr. Kekich founded both public and private companies, was engaged as a consultant and served as director to numerous private and public corporations. He also sold and developed real estate. In 1999, Mr. Kekich founded the "Maximum Life Foundation", a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to curing aging related diseases. In 2000, he founded TransVio Technology Ventures, a venture capital group for life sciences industries. 

Julie Mattison is the contract Facility Head for the National Institute on Aging’s primate aging projects. Her research is focused on NIA’s long-term study of calorie restriction and aging in rhesus monkeys where she is involved with many projects including: cardiovascular function, reproductive aging, immune function, vision, and inflammatory responses. Julie is also studying the effect of high salt intake on cardiovascular responses and aging as a risk factor for atherosclerosis, both in rhesus monkeys. She has been active in the American Aging Association since 1999 when she was a recipient of the Nicolai award for graduate student research in calorie restriction in Ames dwarf mice, a mouse model of delayed aging. In 2002, she was an awardee of the Glenn award for post-doctoral research for her study of high salt. She received her B.S. in Biology from UCSD, an M.S. in Exercise Physiology from Central Washington University, and her Ph.D. in Physiology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Julie also holds an adjunct teaching position at College of Notre Dame of Maryland teaching the Biology of Aging and Interventions for Healthy Aging. 

Education: PhD, nutrition, Iowa State University, 1981; MS, nutrition, Colorado State University, 1977; DVM, Tehran University, 1975. Present Position: Professor of Nutrition and Immunology at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Tufts Sackler Graduate Program in Immunology; Chief, Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Honors: American Aging Association Denham Harman Award, 2003; American Society for Nutritional Sciences Lederle Award in Human Nutrition Research, 1998; the Welcome Visiting Professorship at Iowa State University, 1998; the HERMES Vitamin Research Award, 1994; the Nutritional Immunology Group Award, 1993

back

George Roth, PhD

Dr. Mark A. Smith is Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.  He received a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry from Hatfield College, Durham University, England (1986) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Nottingham University, England (1990).  Following a research fellowship at Sandoz Forschungsinstitut, Vienna Austria, Dr. Smith joined Case Western Reserve University in 1992.  Dr. Smith serves on the Editorial Boards of a number of age-related journals including Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, Aging Cell, and Neurobiology of Aging and also serves on numerous review boards including NIH Study Section and the Alzheimer’s Association. Dr. Smith’s many honors include the American Federation of Aging Research Award for Biomedical Research, Nathan Shock New Investigator Award from the Gerontological Society of America, the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society of Neurochemistry, and the Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Association. Dr. Smith’s research interests focus on investigating the pathological mechanisms underlying selective neuronal death in a number of age-related neurodegenerative disorders, most notably, Alzheimer's disease. Over the past decade, Dr. Smith has authored nearly 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters.

Holly Van Remmen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a member of the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.  She is also appointed as a Research Health Scientist at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.  She received her Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 1991 where she studied age related changes in enzyme induction in Fischer 344 rats.  During her graduate work, she received several awards, including the Proctor and Gamble Professional Opportunity Award from the American Physiologic Society, the Graduate Studies in Physiology Award for Excellence from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UTHSCSA and the Sacher Graduate Student Award in Biological Sciences from the Gerontologic Society of America.  In 1995, she received an American Federation for Aging Research Award.  She is also a member of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine, and the American Physiologic Society.  Her current work involves using transgenic and knockout mouse models to study the relationship between mitochondrial oxidative stress/damage, cancer and aging.  Her recent studies have been directed at testing the oxidative stress theory of aging and the role of mitochondrial oxidative stress in aging using knockout and transgenic mice with deficiencies in antioxidant defense systems.  She is currently studying the role of mitochondrial oxidative stress in age-related in changes in skeletal muscle structure and function and also in age related disease such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).  Other studies in her lab are directed at determining the relationship between spontaneous oxidative damage to DNA and tumorigenesis in mice with deficient antioxidant capacity or reduced DNA repair, and the ability of Vitamin E to modulate this process.

back

MaryLou Voytko, PhD

Dr. Voytko's major research focus is to understand the neural basis of cognitive dysfunction in primate models of aging and women’s health and to identify therapeutic interventions to overcome these dysfunctions. Her behavioral studies involve cognitive assessments of learning, memory and attention function. Her neurobiological studies are focused on the cholinergic and dopaminergic systems in both in vivo and in vitro preparations.

Dr. Voytko has participated in numerous NIH workshops focused on aging or menopause in primates and has served as a primate expert in a variety of capacities for the extramural and intramural programs of the National Institute on Aging, including as a consultant, advisory board member, and steering committee member. At her home institution, she serves as an Associate Director of the Women’s Health Center of Excellence (WHCoE), Director of the WHCoE Leadership Program, and Director of a Mentoring Program for Women Junior Faculty.