Principal Investigator Leonard Guarente
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/biology/guarente/
The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research has pledged $5 million over five years to establish a laboratory in MIT's Department of Biology to study aging.
Guarente's laboratory seeks to discover why we age, what genes influence longevity, and whether it is possible to extend youthfulness by means of genetic manipulation.
Based on the discovery that SIR2 is a key regulator of longevity in both yeast and worms, we are interested in determining whether this highly-conserved gene also governs longevity in mammals.
The mission of the Glenn Foundation, founded in 1965 by Paul F. Glenn, is to extend the healthy productive years of life through research on the mechanisms of biological aging.