Buck Institute joins researchers in Chile to jumpstart research on aging in South America
The Buck Institute's mission to extend healthspan has always been global in nature - now that global outreach has a new focal point, as the Institute partners with researchers in Chile who have been awarded a $6.5 million, five-year government grant to establish the "Center for Geroscience, Brain Health and Metabolism" (GC-BHM) in Santiago.
The Buck helped design the proposal, which received the award from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research to address a priority need - how to prevent the impending crisis of an aging population. The GC-BHM is sponsored by the University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile; the program will focus on the interface between aging and neurodegenerative diseases, with the aim of extending the program to other facets of aging as the research progresses.
Buck researchers, led by President and CEO Brian Kennedy, PhD, will collaborate on research and provide expertise and training not currently available in Chile, where almost 25 percent of the population is on track to be older than 60 by 2050, giving it the highest aging population in South America. "The government in Chile recognizes that we are in 'the age of aging' and has made a bold commitment to the health and well-being of older adults and for that I commend them," said Kennedy. "I am excited to help them build what will be a groundbreaking program."
The GC-BHM has five major goals: 1) to improve diagnoses for neurodegenerative diseases; 2) to evaluate age-related and genetic risk factors linked to neurodegeneration in the Chilean population; 3) to understand how molecular mechanisms involved in aging lead to neurodegeneration; 4) to explore how molecular mechanisms involved in aging lead to neurodegeneration; and 5) to develop a program of interventions to attenuate the consequences of aging.
Kennedy, along with several other Buck faculty, will interconnect on multiple projects as adjunct investigators, helping the GC-BHM to build capacity to perform world class aging research. Dale Bredesen, MD, will be involved in Alzheimer's-related projects, Xianmin Zeng, PhD, will train scientists in stem cell technology, Heinrich Jasper, PhD, will focus on projects related to metabolism and enhancing adult stem cell longevity and Pejmun Haghighi, PhD, will be involved in projects aimed at enhancing neural function with age. The approved project plans "to create a permanent flow of students and postdocs funded by the GC-BHM to perform join projects between Chile and the Buck Institute. "
"We look forward to working with Buck Institute researchers to tackle the big challenge of our aging population," said GC-BHM Director Professor Christian Gonzales Billault, who is on the faculty of Sciences at the University of Chile. "Being able to draw on their expertise both in research and training will allow our work to proceed at a faster pace. They will help us join the global community of aging researchers." See the University of Chile news release.
Provided by Buck Institute for Research on Aging