Fresh from her trip to Utah, our 2025 Korenchevsky Award winner, Loren Kell, tells us all about it:
The British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA) annual meeting had been on my radar for many years, but the 74th annual meeting in Manchester in 2025 was my first. I was delighted that my abstract had been selected for an oral presentation, and even more thrilled when my talk won the Korenchevsky Prize to present at AGE 2026 in the USA. I’m almost certain that this was due, at least in part, to reaping the corporeal benefits of the annual BSRA 5km run that morning – even though I distinctly remember tripping and falling in the first 5 minutes. My PhD research was published in the time between BSRA 2025 and AGE 2026, so it felt especially gratifying to have the opportunity to share my work on the impacts of rapamycin on the ageing human immune system with colleagues across the pond.
This year, the American Aging Association’s 54th annual meeting, AGE 2026, took place in Provo, Utah. This was my first experience of a conference in the USA, and the surroundings certainly didn’t disappoint. Provo is nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, about 45 miles south of the state capital, Salt Lake City. From there, a short trip to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake brought sightings of bison herds, burrowing owls, and antelope. Utah Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the state, was also only a short journey from the conference centre in Provo.
The conference itself was varied and packed with sessions covering the cutting edge of biogerontology research. I particularly enjoyed the pre-conference workshops on translating gerotherapeutic candidates into the clinic, which raised interesting questions about the challenges and opportunities involved in designing geroscience trials, as well as the surprisingly complex question of “what is a biomarker?” — unbeknownst to me, there are seven types. I was also inspired by the session, “From Fertility to Frailty: Ovarian Decline as a Sentinel of Female Aging”, which showcased the compelling evidence that ageing of the ovaries, in both humans and animal models, can precipitate whole-organism ageing phenotypes in females.
I presented on the second day of the conference in the session, “Causes and Consequences of Immune Aging”. My talk was well received and sparked several interesting conversations with other delegates throughout the rest of the meeting. It was noteworthy the number of other researchers also investigating age-related mTOR hyperactivation and the geroprotective impacts of rapamycin in their experimental systems, as well as in human clinical trials.
The AGE Trainee Chapter, which represents early-career researchers in the American Aging Association, had a strong presence throughout the conference and organised several workshops and mixers. I particularly appreciated the Women in AGE lunch, where researchers across all career stages shared their experiences and especially emphasised the crucial role that mentors have played in their professional development. I was also pleased to watch the winning talk from the trainee BSRA travel grant awardee, Laurence Maeyens, who will be attending and presenting his work at the upcoming BSRA 75th meeting in Oxford.
I passed through New York City on my way home, so it felt only fitting to end the trip by visiting the American Museum of Natural History to see a replica of a Moai from Rapa Nui. It was a thoughtful reminder of the place and people connected to the discovery of rapamycin in the soil from the island, and of the wider history behind a drug so important to ageing research.
I am enormously grateful for the generosity of the BSRA in supporting my travel and attendance at AGE 2026. I have returned to the UK with new insights, ideas, and connections, and I look forward to bringing these into my ongoing research into the biology of ageing. I would also strongly encourage anyone considering attending the next meeting in Oxford to absolutely go for it!
