In 2023, I was awarded the Korenchevsky Prize at the BSRA Annual Scientific Meeting held in the University of Westminster, London. I was thrilled to learn that the award would support me to attend and speak at the AGE 52nd Annual Meeting: Integrative Approaches to Geroscience, 2024 to be held in Madison, Wisconsin.
The AGE meeting was well organised and featured brilliant speakers, and while hard to summarize everything, I shall attempt to capture some highlights. The meeting kicked off with a keynote highlighting the National Institute of Ageing’s (NIA) efforts in Aging Biology Research. This included an introduction to the Nonhuman Primate Core program that supports multi-disciplinary translational aging projects. It also featured aging research using Rhesus Macaques conducted by Dr Julie Mathison (National Institute on Aging). There were excellent talks that explored and re-visited the theories of ageing – free radicals in aging, cellular senescence, and somatic mutations. The final speaker for the day, Dr Rafael de Cabo (National Institute on Aging) highlighted the progress and caveats of the ageing field so far. He emphasised that context and experimental protocols should be given due diligence as the list of interventions that extend lifespan continues to increase.
The next days featured brilliant talks about the translational aspects of aging. I especially enjoyed the talk about the non-human primate, marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and interventions using Rapamycin. The session on gero-therapeutic drugs and exercise was also very informative. The talk on the age-related changes in cognition and motor function and neurochemical processes, as well as nutritional interventions, with a particular emphasis on blueberries was highly stimulating. The meeting had an interesting mix of themes that catered to diverse interests, including Neurodegeneration & Brain Aging, Immune-Metabolic Interactions in Aging, Protein and Lipid Metabolism in Aging, Reproductive Aging, Aging with Cells, Stem cells and Role of Systemic Environment in Aging. Notable among these were the results from the Dog Aging Project (a long-term project attempting to study diseases of ageing in dogs). This is useful as dogs are genetically diverse and share our human environment. The speaker, Dr Daniel Promislow highlighted interesting and specific metabolome differences among male and female dogs.
The field of ageing research has gained significant interest from the finance world, leading to the emergence of the “longevity” industry. Investors are actively funding companies that aim to enhance health span. The panel discussion on Longevity Biotech headed by Dr Matt Kaeberlein (CEO,Optispan) and others weighed in on the advancements and challenges so far and the efforts required to ensure evidence-based strategies are propagated. The panel also shared their own experiences making the session insightful for those interested in industry-based roles.
The meeting also honoured late Prof Judith Campisi, a pioneering geroscientist who first established the role of cellular senescence in cancer and ageing. I would like to share an excerpt from when she talked to Dr Gordon Lithgow (Buck Institute of Aging) in ‘We’re Not Getting Any Younger… Yet’’ podcast (2022).
“I think the most important part of science is being prepared to be wrong. You set up a hypothesis. I preach this constantly to my lab. If you prove your hypothesis is wrong, and you’re good, that’s great, we learned something. Don’t worry and be prepared to see something that you were totally unprepared for. That’s fine. And then you scratch your head a little bit and come up with new ideas”.
Truly, Dr Campisi’s legacy will continue to inspire a whole generation of future scientists.
Among the many events at the AGE meeting, there was a trainee roundtable where both lab heads and academics who transitioned from academia to industry or publishing roles came together to share their personal experience, challenges, and achievements as they navigated their early research career days. The Poster Pitch sessions and the Data Blitz session for PhD students and Postdocs were particularly enjoyable as trainees enthusiastically presented their research within the limited time allotted. I must appreciate that AGE provided great opportunities for networking and career development by conducting several trainee events and awards. I also enjoyed the Women in AGE lunch where we had insightful discussions on how to better support women in STEM fields.
As a C. elegans researcher focused on protein homeostasis in ageing, I had assumed it would be a little intimidating to be amongst scientists with varied research interests and experience of exploring ageing in humans and other complex vertebrates. However, I discovered AGE to be a kind, inclusive community with a diverse range of perspectives and viewpoints. As a budding early career researcher who is beginning to cultivate my own research objectives and ideas, having the chance to present my research to field experts was an incredible experience. I’m deeply grateful to the BSRA for this opportunity.
—
Editors notes: The Korenchevsky Prize is awarded at the BSRA’s annual meeting to the ECR elevated oral presentation who is judged to be the best oral presentation at that years BSRA Annual Scientific Meeting. The Korenchevsky Prize includes travel and a reserved oral speaking slot at the American Ageing Associations AGE meeting, allowing the best of BSRA’s young membership to present there work to an international audience.