Written by BSRA society member Hanane Hadj-Moussa, winner of the 2024 Korenchevsky Award. Take it away Hanane!
Unlike most stories, it all started in Birmingham. I was fortunate enough to have my abstract selected for a presentation at the British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA’s) 73rd Annual Meeting, September 2024. I have been attending BSRA annual meetings since 2022 and have valued the supportive and collaborative community of researchers that comes together every year (Editor – we dug through the photo archive and found a photo of Hanane’s first ever BSRA attendance in 2022! See the photo montage below). At the [BSRA 2024] meeting, I presented my work on how rewiring acetyl-CoA metabolism to direct cells into a “healthy” ageing trajectory through healthspan promotion- suggesting that how food is metabolized in cells can impact healthspan. It was a privilege to share our findings with the leaders in the ageing field, and the conference organisers enjoyed so much they awarded me the Korenchevsky Award for the Best Early Career Researcher Talk!
This was a great honour. In addition to humble bragging rights, the prize included a speaker invitation and a fully funded trip to the American Aging Association’s annual meeting in May 2025 being held in none other than Anchorage, Alaska.
Between September 2024 and May 2025, we were able to submit a preprint on the work I presented, and nail down one of the main mechanisms that appears to be responsible for the observed “healthy” phenotype. Work that wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible contributions of Jon Houseley and Megan Ulusan.
The research presented at the American Aging Association meeting was diverse and engaging enough to keep me focused despite the nine-hour jetlag. Somewhat biasedly, my favourite talk investigated the mechanisms underlying hibernation-induced neuroprotection in Arctic ground squirrels and its implications for understanding age-associated neurodegenerative disorders. This model system is close to my heart as my PhD focused on the molecular mechanisms of metabolic arrest such as during hibernation, freezing, and hypoxia.
My talk, “Re-engineering acetyl coenzyme A metabolism achieves constitutive healthy ageing,” was well received, and I appreciated the opportunity to share and exchange ideas with attendees. I particularly enjoyed the interactive mentoring workshop, which brought together researchers across all career stages to discuss mentoring challenges, experiences, and best practices. It was surprising to see that “communication” was the main challenge faced by PhD students in their mentoring relationship, a challenge that the majority of PIs in attendance seemed genuinely unaware of…
While science was the focus, it’s always important to look to nature for inspiration- and if you’re going to do that, Alaska is the place. Even during the talks, the Alaskan wilderness was ever-present in the Dena’ina conference hall we were in that had floor-to-ceiling windows framing Anchorage’s snow-peaked mountains.
After the conference, I explored Anchorage and learned about the traditions of Native Alaskan communities and hiked atop the Matanuska Glacier. I ventured out to Seward and took advantage of the start of the calving season on a cruise through Kenai Fjords National Park. There, I saw humpback whales, glaciers, orcas (and baby orcas), seals (and baby seals), puffins, and bald eagles. As someone from Canada, I didn’t think I’d be so awestruck by the Alaskan wilderness… but I was. It was phenomenal.
This conference truly became the trip of a lifetime.