From Worms to Mammals: The Hormonal Regulation of the Lifespan
Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Kenyon, a molecular biologist whose research on the aging process holds broad implications for slowing the effects of age-related diseases, will present the 2005 Mellon Lecture. Dr. Kenyon currently serves as American Cancer Society Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, where she also directs the new UCSF Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging.
In 1993, working with the roundworm C. elegans as a model organism, she initially reported that by disabling a single gene known as daf-2, which controls the insulin receptor system, the worms could live twice as long as normal without any diminished activity. As her research continued, Dr. Kenyon extended the lifespan of C. elegans up to six times the norm, while others found that daf-2 regulates the hormone signaling system not only in worms but also in fruit flies and mice. Her work led to the discovery that mammalian aging is also regulated hormonally; the question of how these findings about the genetic underpinnings of aging might apply to human beings is yet to be determined.