Speakers

Tim R. Peterson, PhD,  Assistant Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Washington University in St. Louis

Healthspan therapeutics that increase the ratio of “young” to “old” genes:  As our global population lives longer, there is increasing interest in healthspan – the period of life that one is free from aging-associated conditions, such as Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis. Healthspan is recognized as important because of its impact on quality of life and health care costs. We’ve developed a healthspan metric we call the “Y/O Ratio” based on genes we’ve categorized as either “young” or “old”. We applied our metric to identify potential anti-aging drugs with a Y/O Ratio greater than 1. In the coming months we will test these drugs in mouse models of Alzheimer’s, which is a prevalent aging condition with limited treatment options.

Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, Professor of Developmental Biology,  Washington University in St. Louis

Achieving Productive Aging: Understanding the systemic regulation of aging and longevity in mammals and developing an anti-aging intervention:  I will introduce the cutting-edge front of aging/longevity research in our lab, focusing on the inter-tissue communications among the hypothalamus, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue.  I will also talk about our efforts of translating our preclinical results to humans and developing an anti-aging intervention using an NAD intermediate called nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN).

On the third Thursday of every month, ICTS Precision Medicine hosts a session featuring WashU faculty working in translational genomics/precision medicine areas. Talks are typically oriented toward biotechnology, diagnostics, informatics, start-ups and precision interventions based on medical genomics innovations.