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2005 ANNUAL MEETING
- PRESIDENT REPORT |
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Back in
2003 when we started planning the 2005
meeting of the American Aging
Association, ("AGE"), we thought that
the members and other attendees may be
interested in a "mix" of topics dealing
with various aspects of MECHANISMS AND
PREVENTION OF AGING. In keeping with
this theme of the meeting, we selected
speakers who would cover some of the
most exciting recent developments in the
study of the biology of aging as well as
new information on the effects of
nutrition and the prospects of
nutritional interventions into the aging
process in the human.
We were very
gratified that the program appealed to
many people with a near-record
attendance of 239.
 Approximately
half of the participants arrived one day
earlier to take advantage of the
exciting
Pre-Conference program arranged
by Dr. James Joseph, one of the past
presidents of AGE and an internationally
recognized expert on the influence of
diet on oxidative stress and aging. The
title of the Pre-Conference, Nutrition,
Lifestyles, Aging and Neurodegenerative
Disease well describes the scope of very
exciting findings which were presented
and discussed during this part of the
meeting.
The
first session (Genetic
Mechanisms - Chair: Dr. Trudy MacKay)
provided an update of
research on the mechanisms of aging in a
worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, a fruit
fly, Drosophila and yeast. These
invertebrate organisms continue to play
a key role in the study of genetic
control of aging and the cellular
mechanisms involved and allow
application of the powerful novel
molecular biology methods to the study
of fundamental mechanisms of aging.
(The speakers and titles of this and all
other sessions as well as abstracts of
their presentations can be found on the
meeting website at
www.americanaging.org/2005.html).
The second
session (Cellular
Mechanisms I - Chair: Dr. Donald Ingram)
dealt with age-related
alterations in mitochondrial and muscle
function and with recent advances in
identifying changes in cellular
metabolism that occur in response to
caloric restriction.
The
third session (Caloric
Restriction in the Human - Chair:
Claudio Franceschi) addressed the issue of the
applicability of what we are learning
about effects of caloric restriction in
experimental animals to our own
species. The speakers reviewed data
obtained in individuals who voluntarily
practice caloric restriction, findings
from two on going controlled studies of
caloric restriction in the human, and
data relating nutrition to longevity to Okinawans, human population with the
longest life-span.
 The next
session (Cellular
Mechanisms II - Chair: Huber Warner)
consisted of papers on DNA
damage, relationship of growth hormone
to aging, and phenotypic characteristics
(including small body size) that predict
longevity. This was followed by
discussion of the role of IGF-1 in aging
including data from two novel mouse
models in which reduced levels or total
of free IGF-1 are associated with
extended life span (IGF-1 -
Chair: Dr. Norman Wolf).
Topics
related to possibilities of treating age
related disease and functional decline
constituted the next session (Brain
Aging and Novel Therapies - Chair: Dr.
John Morley). This
included immunotherapy of Alzheimer's
disease, role of stem cells in muscle
regeneration, and protective effects of
an anti-oxidant enzyme, SOD-1 on the
survival of neurons. The last session
(Genomics
and Proteomics - Chair: Dr. John
Holloszy)
dealt with application of the powerful
approaches of genomics and proteomics to
analysis of the profiles of gene
expression and gene products in
different organisms.
 There
were also two sessions devoted to short
presentations of recent research
findings, selected from the abstracts
submitted by the registrants. The high
caliber of these presentations was most
gratifying and I believe it attests to
the appeal of the annual AGE meeting as
a forum for reporting novel, exciting
data. I should add that a total of
95
abstracts were submitted (11
oral, 79 poster) and
those that were presented as posters
were also excellent and contributed
greatly to what the attendees learned
during the meeting.
In
addition to the sessions listed above,
there were three Special Lectures and an
Award Lecture. Dr. Morley, director of
the Gerontology Program at St. Louis
University discussed the topic of
frailty and reminded us that benefits of
caloric restriction contrast with
problems of loss of appetite,
malnutrition and weight loss in the
elderly. Dr. Franceschi, who developed
an impressive series of studies of
centenarians in Italy, reviewed the
highlights of this fascinating work.
Dr. Warner, who recently retired from a
position of Program Director at the
National Institute on Aging, reviewed
the
initiatives and achievements during
the past 21 years. His lecture gave us
a chance to express appreciation for
what he did for the field of
experimental gerontology and for the
individual investigators and this was
expressed in the introductory remarks
made by Dr. Martin and in a standing
ovation after the lecture.
The Denham
Harman Award Lecture dealt with
mutations that prolong life in the mouse
and included reflections of the
undersigned on his personal journey from
reproductive endocrinology to aging
research.
I would
like to thank all those who have made
this meeting possible, including our
generous supporters, as
well as Drs. Peter Hornsby, Michal
Jazwinski, Tom Johnson, George Roth,
Holly Van Remmen, along with Dr. Arthur Balin - AGE Executive
Director, Ms. Donna Cini - AGE
Operations, the AGE Board of Directors and
of course, all the speakers and meeting
registrants!
We hope you will join
us next year, once more, at our 2006
Annual Meeting to be held in Boston,
Massachusetts (more details in our July
issue). Until then, we look
forward to your participation in our
ongoing activities and hope that you
will consider
renewing your membership today
(don't forget that each membership
provides a considerable discount on the
annual meeting registration as well as online access
to our Journal)!
Andrzej Bartke, PhD
AGE President, 2004-2005
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STUDENT PROGRAM |
 I
am pleased to report that our first such
program - created exclusively
for
undergraduate, graduate and first
year post-doctoral students
- was held
Saturday, the 4th of June, at 6 pm.
With the help of my
colleagues,
Drs. Rozalyn Anderson, Qitao Ran and Sige Zou,
we have organized a data blitz session
of 90 minutes which included nine
presentations of 10 minutes each (five
slides per presentation and 5 minutes of
Q & A).
Among our selected presenters, we
counted:
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Christoph
Mueck * *
Jacob Panici
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*Runner-up
** Winner |
 The
winner of this year's program was
Christoph Mueck
and the two runners up were
Dudley Lamming
and
Raina Gay. Our congrats
to all! (Christoph is also the winner of a one-year
student membership with the
American Aging Association.)
Before
and after the talks we had a great
exchange of ideas, goals and trends
about the association as well as what things will
make the association a better and a
student-friendly place. In order
of importance, the
requests were for:
- a
searchable web space for students with
access to info about
groups/jobs/techniques, etc.
-
continuing to have the student program
structured as in Oakland, though
inviting a "big" name to the program to
share their own research and work
experience with the group.
-
a party
for everyone (not just the students)
such that additional interaction between
students and mentors could be made
possible.
- a
more aggressive advertising to mentors
and graduate schools about how wonderful
and educative this meeting is.
 Following
the Round Table Discussion, all Student Program
participants were invited to a reception at a
venue near the hotel.
In preparation for
our next year's Student Program,
we invite all of our members' input.
We look forward to
planning additional features for our Student
Members and hope that you will join us, next
year, at another program carved especially for
YOU!
Rafael de Cabo, PhD
Student Program Chair
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OUR STUDENT
PROGRAM WINNERS |
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Christoph Mück: My work is
about aspects of the mitochondrial
theory of aging. I had established
a Real-Time Taq-Man PCR for detecting
low amounts of mtDNA carrying the
"Common Deletion" (CD). At first,
I had isolated chondrocytes out of
cartilage and cultivated them. The
chondrocyte in-vivo is isolated within a
voluminous extracellular matrix that is
not vascularized. Therefore the oxygen
tension is very low. By changing from
ex-vivo to in-vitro, there is
a strong increase in oxygen tension.
One could expect that there is a rise in
the incidence of CD as a marker for
increased damaging of mtDNA by Reactive
Oxygen Species. This is exactly what I
have seen with my Real-Time PCR
measurements. We also isolated
fibroblasts out of human skin and
cultivated them till passage four. I
showed that the amount of CD is
distinctly reduced from passage two to
passage four. This effect might be due
to more slowly replication of damaged
mitochondria and therefore the outgrow
by intact mitochondria in mitotically
active cells.
This research work got me into contact
with many hypotheses in the field of the
mitochondrial theory of aging. I'm fond
of discovering and understanding the
different hypotheses of aging. My
first hypothesis paper was from Dr.
Aubrey de Grey about the "Survival of
the slowest" hypothesis. Since
then I had become interested in the biogerontology world of thought and I'm
dreaming of creating or contributing to
a consistent hypothesis or to confirm,
experimentally, aspects of such one in
the future. Furthermore, for me,
this research is so important because I
am working on such fundamental questions
of life!
This
biogerontology research also has an
impact on me and my diet. At
least, after the first day of the
American Aging Association's conference,
I am certainly not going to eat any more
spaghetti every day but vegetables,
fruits, almonds etc. and yes, I'll be
drinking blueberry juice!
I think the students-only program is a
great opportunity not only to check
one's results and conclusions but also
to learn and strengthen one's
presentation techniques. In my
opinion, it is important to build up a
presentation as straightforward as
possible and to try to get the audience
to experience a moment of sudden insight
into your thoughts. For me, it was
also a good practice to stay within the
allocated presentation-time. Dr.
Rafael de Cabo was strict but also kind
in his guiding us about respecting each
of our time slots. It is very
appropriate to learn all these things in
a "test" environment, that of a
students-only program. This program is
also a great opportunity to get to know
the researchers of the next generation.
I would
like to thank the American Aging
Association for organizing this program
and for rewarding my presentation. I'm
glad to be a member of the American
Aging Association and I'm looking
forward to the next meeting. All
this is motivating me very much to
contribute to biogerontology with my
work. I feel already very
comfortable with the scientists of this
very special field of research, although
I'm still a little bit shy in talking to
my heroes.
We
thank Christoph for his kind words and
wish him our best of continued success!
Should you wish to contact Christoph
directly, please email him at
christophmueck@gmx.de.
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Dudley
Lamming: I am in the lab of
Dr. David Sinclair
at Harvard, and I
am using yeast
as a model system to better understand
the genetics of aging, and to try and
figure out how caloric restriction (CR)
is able to extend lifespan. For
several years, the prevailing hypothesis
has been that CR acts via Sir2, an NAD+-dependent
histone deacetylase that acts to prevent
recombination between tandem repeats in
the yeast rDNA array.
Recombination between these repeats
leads to the formation of
extrachromosomal rDNA circles (ERCs),
which contain an origin of replication
and segregate preferentially to the
mother cell during cell division. In the
absence of Sir2, CR is no longer able to
function, and high levels of ERCs lead
to premature senescence.
Last year,
work done in part by Dr. Matt Kaeberlein,
who also attended the conference, showed
that the high levels of ERCs were
masking another, Sir2-independent
pathway through which CR can extend
yeast lifespan. Inspired, I and two
other graduate students in our lab set
out to see if these effects were working
though some of the yeast homologues of
Sir2. We pretty quickly realized that
Hst2, a cytoplasmic NAD+-dependent
deacetylase, was affecting rDNA
recombination in ways very similar to
Sir2. After making many, many genetic
mutants, doing a ton of yeast lifespans,
and collaborating with Su-Ju Lin’s lab
at UC Davis, we showed that Hst2 (and to
a lesser extent Hst1) was responsible
for the Sir2-independent lifespan
extension by CR.
The
conference was a really great
opportunity to meet people working on
the cutting edge of aging research. The
pre-conference meeting was also very
informative; since I've mainly been
concentrating on genetics and yeast, I
think it was great to get exposed to all
of the research that might be more
directly applicable to human health. The
students-only program was a lot of fun.
Since everyone uses PowerPoint nowadays,
I suspect this may be the only
conference at which I will ever give a
chalk talk! I also got some
really great questions and advice, and
I'm hard at work putting some of those
suggestions into practice.
I'd like to
thank both the American Aging
Association and my advisor for sending
me to such a great meeting. I'd also
like to thank everyone who came by my
poster! Hopefully I'll see
everyone again next year in Boston,
which I’m sure will have a really fun
student session.
We
thank Dudley for having the courage to
a) stand up to be the first
presenter, and b) deliver his
presentation "chalk-only"!
Should you wish to contact Dudley
directly, please visit his page at
http://www.fiestaterrace.com/dlamming/index.php
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 Raina
Gay: I found it extremely
beneficial to present my data at the AGE
meeting in Oakland. I typically present
my data to scientists in the nutrition
field, so I gained significant insight
and got great suggestions when I spoke
with researchers at the AGE meeting.
This experience was particularly
beneficial for me because I study effect
of host age and nutritional status on
microbial infection and evolution. Thus,
my research combines a number of
different areas, so it was particularly
helpful to talk to scientists from
different disciplines.
Meeting with the graduate students in
the student-only atmosphere was a great
way to network and discuss our research
in a low pressure atmosphere. I felt
that some students were able to ask
questions that they normally wouldn't
have if we were with a group of more
senior scientists. Also, we were able to
spend time discussing our technical
questions and problems with each other.
I plan to continue to study the effect
of the aging host on microbial
infections. Thanks again to Dr. Rafael
de Cabo for organizing the student
program and to the American Aging
Association for recognizing my research.
I hope that everyone has a prosperous
summer and year and I hope to see
everyone again at next year's American
Aging Association meeting!
We
thank Raina for her wonderful note!
Should you wish to learn more about her
work,
please visit:
http://www.tufts.edu/sackler/immunology/meydani/index.html
or
http://hnrc.tufts.edu/departments/labs/immunology.php
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SUPPORTERS |
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SUPPORTERS/PARTNERS: The
American Aging Association is most
grateful for the generous support of the
following organizations:
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ANNOUNCEMENTS |
AGE -The
Journal of the American Aging Association
In celebration of
the new AGE, we
will provide free electronic access to
the first issue of 2005. To access
Vol 27, Number 1 - March 2005
go to:
www.springeronline.com/11357 and click on
Online version. Access
to the whole volume will be free ONLY to scientific
members (scientific members will be informed about
their access soon).
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BOOK DISCOUNT!
Biology of Aging and its Modulation
-
the
book series encompasses 5 volumes published
between 2003-2004 and
fulfills the demand
for books on the biology of aging, which can
provide critical and comprehensive overview of
the wide range of topics, including the
descriptive, conceptual and interventive aspects
of biogerontology. The titles of the books in
this series and the names of the respective
editors are:
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Aging at the
molecular level (T. von Zglinicki, UK),
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Aging of cells
(S. Kaul and R. Wadhwa, Japan),
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Aging of organs
and systems (R. Aspinall, UK),
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Aging of
organisms (H.D. Osiewacz, Germany),
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Modulating
aging and longevity (S. Rattan, Denmark).
The target
readership is both the undergraduate and
graduate students in universities, medical and
nursing colleges, and post-graduates taking up
research projects on different aspects of
biogerontology. We hope that these books will be
an important series for college, university and
state libraries maintaining a good database in
biology, medical and biomedical sciences.
Furthermore, these books will also be of much
interest to pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical,
nutraceutical and healthcare industry for an
easy access to accurate and reliable information
in the field of aging research and intervention.
All
AGE Members benefit from a 20%!
Please
visit the website
for additional information
on the book series.
To order
your copy with discounted price, please
contact:
Fabio de Castro
Springer
fabio.decastro@springer-sbm.com
Van Godewijckstraat 30, P.O. Box 17
3300 AA, Dordrecht The Netherlands
tel: +31 (0) 78 657 6309 ; fax: +31 (0) 78
657 6388
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WELCOME TO OUR NEW AGE MEMBERS:
Alicia Bright (Student Member)
Edward Byrd (Scientific Member)
Craig Cooney (Scientific Member)
John C. Guerin (Scientific Member)
Leonard Hayflick (Scientific Member)
Kelly Huang (Scientific Member)
Mahtab Jafari (Scientific Member)
Steven G. Pratt, MD., F.A.C.S. is a Board
Certified Ophthalmologist and a Fellow of the
 American
College of Surgeons. He is a recognized world
authority on the prevention of eye disease –
particularly macular degeneration -- and has
been widely published in peer review journals.
Dr. Pratt lectures nationally and
internationally on the benefits of a diet based
on the synergy of consuming whole foods and
adopting healthy lifestyle choices as a means to
prevent all major chronic diseases. He is the
author of The New York Times bestseller
SUPERFOODS Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change
Your Life, which, to date,
been translated into 19 languages throughout the
world. Dr. Pratt has appeared on most national
media including "Today," "Oprah" (where he is
known as "Our Food Dude"), and "The View." As a
result, Dr. Pratt is regarded by the medical
community and the general public as the
pre-eminent voice for cutting edge nutrition and
health.
Christa Studzinski (Student Member): I
am currently completing my PhD with the
Department of Pharmacology at the University of
Toronto. My thesis focuses on the
beneficial effects of medium chain triglycerides
(MCTs) on cognition, mitochondrial function and
neuropathology in aging and dementia. We used a
unique model of human aging and dementia, the
aged dog, to assess the efficacy of MCTs. This
model provided several advantages including
pharmacological validity and natural cognitive,
neuropathological and behavioral changes that
are similar to those observed in humans.
Frank Summerfield (Scientific Member)
Bill Vaughan (Scientific Member)
Sherman M. Weissman (Scientific Member)
Jun Hyun Yoo (Scientific Member)
If we
had omitted your name from this list of new
members,
please let us know.
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GRANT DEADLINES:
Deadline:
September 16, 2005
American Society on Aging - MetLife Foundation
MindAlert Awards
http://www.agingconference.org/jc06/index.cfm
Deadline: January 16, 2006
ADA-ASP Young
Investigator Innovation Award in Geriatric
Endocrinology
The American
Diabetes Association (ADA)-Association of
Subspecialty Professors (ASP)
http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-research/research-grant-application-forms.jsp
AMERICAN
FEDERATION FOR AGING RESEARCH
Glenn/AFAR
Breakthroughs in Gerontology Awards
www.afar.org
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MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Email
us your meeting announcement
November 18-22, 2005 -
Hilton New Orleans Riverside
The Gerontological Society of America
58th Annual Scientific
Meeting
Visit GSA at
www.geron.org
for continually updated
information regarding
meeting highlights, the
tentative meeting schedule,
hotel information, and
registration. |
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September 7-11. 2005 - Queens'
College, Cambridge, England
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Second
Strategies for Engineered Negligible
Senescence (SENS) Conference
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The emphasis of this meeting is on
"applied gerontology" -- the design and
implementation of biomedical
interventions that may, jointly,
constitute a comprehensive panel of
rejuvenation therapies, sufficient to
restore middle-aged or older laboratory
animals (and, in due course, humans) to
a youthful degree of physiological
robustness.
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September 7-9, 2005
- St Anne’s
College, Oxford, UK
Ageing Population Conference 2005:
Sixty-five and not out! An age of
opportunity or limitation?
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September 29 - October 1, 2005 - St. Gallen, Switzerland
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Viva 50
Plus, World Ageing and Generations
Congress
October 6-8, 2005 - Novato,
CA, USA
The 2005 Buck Institute Symposium on
Aging “Pharmacology of Lifespan”
www.buckinstitute.org
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October 27-30, 2005
- Mayan Ranch, Texas Hill Country,
Bandera, TX - USA
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The Role of Protein Misfolding and
Aggregation on Aging and Age-Related
Disorders
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July 23-29, 2006
- Durban, South Africa
International Sociological Association –
RC11 Sociology of Ageing at the XVI
World Congress of Sociology in
July 23-29, 2006
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