Collaborative Research: An integrative approach to understanding variation in patterns of aging in primates

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Human lifespan has doubled in the last century, and this has been linked to an increase in age-associated disease. These diseases stem from the natural age-associated deterioration of bodily function but it is unclear how deterioration across systems – for example, bone loss and decreased immune system function – are related. It also remains to be determined whether patterns of aging and age-associated disease in humans are further impacted by a mismatch between contemporary and ancestral environments. Key influences on individual differences in patterns of aging and timing of onset of age-related disease remain to be uncovered. This project studies wild-living non-human primates to examine the biological systems that deteriorate with age, and drills down into the mechanisms behind individual differences in the rate of aging. This study contributes valuable comparative data on aging that deepens an understanding of human aging patterns through identifying specific social and life course factors associated with age-related disease. This project supports the training and professional development of a postdoctoral researcher and multiple undergraduate students, local community outreach and engagement, and science outreach in K-12 schools in the U.S.This project builds on over fifteen prior years of data collection on the same populations, which provides a rich context of behavioral and demographic data from over 100 individuals. Social adversity in early life and adulthood, cumulative reproductive effort, and multiple markers of biological aging are included predictors of aging patterns and outcomes. The main aims of the project are to identify: 1) the trajectory of aging across the life course with respect to physical deterioration (as measured by bone and muscle loss), physiological dysregulation (as indexed by hormone and immune markers), and molecular hallmarks of aging, and compare the results with existing datasets on aging from humans and other nonhuman primates; 2) the factors and timing that exert the strongest influence on inter-individual differences in the pace of biological aging, including social status, traumatic changes in social group membership, poor social integration, and increased reproductive effort. By coupling a rich longitudinal dataset with cutting edge methods in physiology, medical imaging, molecular techniques, and comparative methods, this study adds to a small, but growing number of nonhuman primate models of aging in wild populations that can build an informative context for understanding the evolution of, and variation in, human aging and aging-related deterioration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.