JAX Center for Aging Research

 

Renewal - Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging

A renewal application for the Nathan Shock Center was submitted to the National Institute on Aging on October 20 by Center co-directors Luanne Peters, Gary Churchill, and Ron Korstanje (lead-PI). With significant support from Research Program Development Senior Scientific Writer Stephen Krasinski, Ph.D., we believe this is a very competitive renewal and hope to continue the work of the 15-year old center. In the renewal we describe a new core (the Image Analysis Core) for the automated analysis of geropathology in different tissues and a project to understand the impact of genetic variation on senescence and treatment of senolytics, the new type of drugs that target and remove senescent cells. The priority of the center remains being a resource for the geroscience community and performing pilot projects for both internal and external investigators that generates preliminary data for grant applications.

 

Geroscience Summit

Center co-directors Gary Churchill and Ron Korstanje attended the third Geroscience Summit at the NIH on November 4th and 5th. The NIH created a Trans-NIH Geroscience Interest Group (GSIG) of 20 NIH Institutes and Centers who convene for a yearly summit in a forum of novel interactions between disease-focused professional societies and foundations, the academic community involved in geroscience research, and drug-discovery groups looking to develop therapies against aging and age-related diseases. A goal of the program is to introduce major concepts of geroscience and how basic research into the biology of aging has led to identifying biological mechanisms that contribute to age-related chronic disease.

Aging Interest Group (AIG)

Another exciting AIG was held on December 4th. Presentations included a talk from Danielle Bruns and Emily Schmitt of the University of Wyoming presenting results from a pilot project the Nathan Shock Center performed for them in 2018. Results led to a recent publication in AJP Renal Physiology (PMID 31461350) and an RO1 application. The other presenter was Andrew Schile, JMCRS Senior Scientific Advisor, talking about recent studies using aged C57BL/6J mice from JAX production.

 

Publication Highlights

• Schmitt EE, Johnson EC, Yusifova M, Bruns DR (2019) The renal molecular clock: broken by aging restored by exercise. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 1;317(5):F1087-F1093. doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00301.
• Bubier JA, Sutphin GL, Reynolds TJ, Korstanje R, Fuksman-Kumpa A, Baker EJ, Langston MA, Chesler EJ (2019) Integration of heterogeneous functional genomics data in gerontology research to find genes and pathway underlying aging across species. PLoS One 12;14(4):e0214523. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214523 PMID: PMC6461221
• Mesner LD, Calabrese GM, Al-Barghouthi B, Gatti DM, Sundberg JP, Churchill GA, Godfrey DA, Ackert-Bicknell CL, Farber CR (2019) Mouse genome-wide association and systems genetics identifies Lhfp as a regulator of bone mass. PLoS Genet. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008123
• Loberg MA, Bell RK, Goodwin LO, Eudy E, Miles LA, SanMiguel JM, Young K, Bergstrom DE, Levine RL, Schneider RK, Trowbridge JJ (2019) Sequencially inducible mouse models reveal that Npm1 mutation causes malignant transformation of Dnmt3a-mutant clonal hematopoiesis. Leukemia 33, pages1635–1649.
• Haque S, Ames RM, Moore K, Pilling LC, Peters LL, Bandinelli S, Ferrucci L, Harries LW. (2019) 
  circRNAs expressed in human peripheral blood are associated with human aging phenotypes, cellular senescence and mouse lifespan. Geroscience. doi: 10.1007/s11357-019-00120-z.