Abstract:

We often joke about the inevitability of death and taxes, but beyond death itself, nearly every organism displays the hallmarks of aging: an accelerating rate of declining function over time. Extreme differences in lifespan both within and between species has long been a deep evolutionary question, and it is evident that understanding the genetic basis of aging has become ever more important to Western society as external forms of mortality, such as infectious disease, have declined in importance. I will present multifactorial approaches drawn from genetics, genomics, experimental evolution, population biology, neurobiology, microfluidics, and chemical studies that my lab is using to understand the biology of aging, from its evolutionary causes and implications to the search for compounds to increase health and lifespan.