Mitochondria and aging
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2010 senior Scholar Award in aging
The role of mtDNA mutations in the aging process has been debatable for decades since Harmanís seminal work on mitochondria, oxidative stress and aging. Currently more than ever the field is plentiful in evidence both in favor and against an involvement of mtDNA mutations in aging, which have led... >> MORE |
2010 senior Scholar Award in aging
It seems self-evident that babies are born young, independent of the age of their parents. However, this process poses a challenge to anyone thinking about the biological basis of aging. How does a mother whose cells have aged for 20, 30, or 40 years produce a baby with a whole lifetime ahead of... >> MORE |
2010 senior Scholar Award in aging
This project will investigate a key paradox involving the potential role of mitochondria in aging. Historically, studies in mammals have shown that preservation of mitochondrial function and reduced generation of reactive oxygen species are correlated with increased lifespan and healthspan, i.e.,... >> MORE |
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2009 senior Scholar Award in aging
Aging is widely considered to involve a progressive loss of function of mitochondria, the cellular organelles that generate most of the energy required to sustain life. The notion that such mitochondrial dysfunction is not just a consequence, but a cause of aging is the basis of the mitochondrial... >> MORE |
2009 senior Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria are cellular organelles that use the oxygen we breathe to oxidize carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The oxygen is fully reduced to form water, and energy is released. The mitochondria capture this energy to phosphorylate ADP to ATP, a molecule that can be hydrolyzed by the cells to... >> MORE |
2009 senior Scholar Award in aging
The cause of Alzheimer disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disorder of aging, is unclear. It is known that there is an increased accumulation of various proteins in the brain of AD patients (in so-called "amyloid plaques" and "tangles") that are clearly associated... >> MORE |
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2009 senior Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria provide the cell with the energy they need to run on, but damaged mitochondria can be highly deleterious to cells. In a large cell like a neuron, getting the right number of mitochondria to the right part of the cell to provide for its needs can be crucial to its health. Clearing... >> MORE |
2006 senior Scholar Award in aging
A major model of aging postulates that DNA mutations accumulate within mitochondria as we age. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is particularly vulnerable, because mitochondria are a major source of reactive oxygen species, small molecules that can damage DNA. This damage causes mtDNA mutations, whose... >> MORE |
2006 senior Scholar Award in aging
Cellular energy is derived ultimately from the food we ingest. In order to be useful to the cell, food components such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates are eventually broken down into molecule-sized components. Through the process of "glycolysis," an individual cell converts carbohydrate... >> MORE |
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2005 senior Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria are intracellular organelles responsible for metabolism as well as many biosynthetic pathways. Mitochondria are the source of much of the cellís energy and are also the major source of production of reactive oxygen species. Mitochondria contain their own distinct genome and, although... >> MORE |
2005 senior Scholar Award in aging
For unknown reasons, individuals with the metabolic syndrome frequently have high blood pressure, increased blood lipids, reduced exercise capacity, oxidative stress, increased inflammation, glucose intolerance (diabetes), premature cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis, heart attack and... >> MORE |
2003 senior Scholar Award in aging
The aging process is increasingly considered to be a programmed event regulated by individual gene products, like other developmental processes. One major implication of this working model is that several diseases associated with aging might actually be linked by a common set of aging genes... >> MORE |
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2002 senior Scholar Award in aging
One of the characteristics of aging is progressive deterioration of muscle function. We will study this phenomenon using the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model organism. Drosophila flight muscle is among the most metabolically active tissues in any organism. Its mitochondria, the... >> MORE |
2001 senior Scholar Award in aging
The theory known as the "free radical theory of aging" has achieved prominence as one of the most compelling explanation for many of the degenerative changes of aging. Ongoing researches in the study of free radical biochemistry and in the genetics of aging have been at the forefront of this... >> MORE |
2000 senior Scholar Award in aging
Recently, the use of a novel approach for specific detection of heteroplasmic mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has surprisingly revealed high copy point mutations (present in up to 50% of mtDNA) at specific positions in the control region of human fibroblast mtDNA from normal old, but not... >> MORE |
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1999 senior Scholar Award in aging
Research Interests.
Our major interest is the decay of mitochondria with age due to the oxidative damage of mtDNA, proteins, and lipids. We are making progress in reversing some of this mitochondrial decay in old rats by the feeding of normal mitochondrial metabolites at high levels; we now... >> MORE |
1999 senior Scholar Award in aging
Accurate copying of DNA in cells is carried out by DNA polymerases. These enzymes polymerize nulceotides that are complementary to the nucleotides in the cellular DNA template, yielding daughter DNA molecules that preserve the nucleotide sequence of the parental molecules. Errors in this process,... >> MORE |
1999 senior Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria have been proposed by others to be both initiators and targets of cellular degeneration associated with aging. The proposed work is designed to test specific hypotheses in which cellular degradation and aging are related to mitochondrial mutation. Measurement and implications of... >> MORE |
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1999 senior Scholar Award in aging
Evidence continues to accumulate that aging is associated with a decline in mitochondrial function, suggesting that mitochondrial dysfunction maybe a major factor in the pathophysiology of aging and senescence. The mitochondria provide most of the cellular energy through oxidative... >> MORE |
2012 new Scholar Award in aging
The mechanisms which impact aging and aging-related diseases are complex and challenging to study. Systems-biology studies have mapped out aging-related genetic networks, but these top-down approaches are complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing correlations from causality. Genome-wide... >> MORE |
2010 new Scholar Award in aging
Age-related declines in muscle mass and strength contribute significantly to falls, frailty and losses of mobility and independence ñ events which concern many older Americans. Of the many factors which contribute to muscle aging, our work has focused on mutations of the mitochondrial genome and... >> MORE |
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2009 new Scholar Award in aging
Some of the effects of aging are thought to originate from cell structures called mitochondria. Mitochondria are the cells' power sources; hundreds to thousands are present in every cell of the body, and each contains its own DNA that is separate from the cell nucleus, where the majority of our... >> MORE |
2009 new Scholar Award in aging
Emerging evidence suggests that excessive fat oxidation can be detrimental to whole body insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial performance. In our recent studies, diet-induced metabolic dysfunction in obese rodents was specifically linked to elevated rates of ìincompleteî... >> MORE |
2009 new Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria are cytoplasmic organelles that generate the majority of cellular energy and carry out numerous other critical biochemical processes. Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in a vast array of severe diseases, including age-associated afflictions; indeed reactive oxygen species... >> MORE |
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2008 new Scholar Award in aging
The free radical theory of aging was proposed by Denham Harman more than 50 years ago, and has been perhaps the most actively studied mechanistic theory of aging. It is based on the idea that oxygen free radicals, in particular mitochondrial superoxide, are normally generated within cells, yet are... >> MORE |
2008 new Scholar Award in aging
The mechanisms that cause the deterioration of cellular functions during the aging process remain poorly understood. Alterations in mitochondrial energy metabolism may be particularly important because it affects a wide range of cellular processes, and any defect will have widespread consequences... >> MORE |
2007 new Scholar Award in aging
Calorie restriction (CR) extends lifespan in model organisms including yeast, flies, worms and rodents. Changes in NAD+ metabolism and a family of conserved NAD+ -dependent protein-modifying enzymes called sirtuins are involved in mediating the longevity response to CR. The... >> MORE |
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2006 new Scholar Award in aging
The mitochondrial respiratory chain has multiple components (complexes I-V and coenzyme Q) that work intimately together to turn fuel (supplied by the metabolic breakdown of sugar, fat, and protein) into energy (in the form of ATP). It is also a site of production of free radicals, which are... >> MORE |
2006 new Scholar Award in aging
Why do we age? Although no one knows for certain, there are many theories that offer potential explanations. One such theory is called the mitochondrial theory of aging. Mitochondria are small sub-cellular organelles that harvest energy for our bodies by combining the electrons from our digested... >> MORE |
2006 new Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria play a central role integrating cellular energetics and the control of cell survival. As a result they are a critical element in aging and many degenerative diseases. Our research focuses on identifying the role of in vivo mitochondrial dysfunction in degenerative diseases... >> MORE |
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2004 new Scholar Award in aging
The decline in energy with age highlights energy metabolism and the role of mitochondria in aging. Aged cells accumulate oxidative DNA damage that is likely to be responsible for the observed increase in mutations, particularly in the mitochondrial genome. The major source of reactive oxygen... >> MORE |
2002 new Scholar Award in aging
The overall goal of this study is to isolate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations associated with aging, to analyze the accumulation of the mutations during aging and to determine the genetic and functional consequences of the age-dependent mtDNA mutations in mouse. In mammalian cells, over 90% of... >> MORE |
2000 new Scholar Award in aging
Mitochondria are the organelles within cells that are responsible
for generating much of the required energy for cell survival.
Mitochondria have their own DNA (mtDNA) which encodes
some of the necessary proteins to carry out these biochemical
reactions. Recently, there has been an increased... >> MORE |
The Ellison Medical Foundation