45th Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association



 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are requesting funds to support the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association to be held June 3rd to June 6th at the Edgewater Hotel and Bell Harbor Conference Center, Seattle, Washington. This meeting is one of the premier meetings for biogerontological research and is the only annual meeting sponsored by a professional membership organization in the United States that limits its focus to biomedical issues in aging. The theme of the meeting is "Targeting Aging: The Ultimate in Preventative Medicine". Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, President of AGE, together with the AGE Program Committee (Drs. Anson, Buffenstein, Nelson, Perez-Olsen, and Promislow), Session Chairs, and the AGE Executive Board organize the scientific program. The overall objective is to convene scientists and trainees from multiple disciplines in a forum for presentation and critical debate of the lates discoveries in aging research and to stimulate forward thinking and collaboration among participants. Funds are requested to help cover travel expenses of 1) invited speakers and 2) meritorious junior scientists (students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty) who can benefit from exposure to the leaders of the field, present their research findings and have the opportunity to contribute and get feedback from experts in the field. The specific goals of this meeting are a) to assemble a broad-based forum of basic and clinical scientists to present findings that utilize novel methods, uncover new mechanisms and have potential for development of therapeutics that may enhance quality and length of healthy life; b) to highlight important research areas not recently covered at meetings; c) to encourage open discussion and debate; and d) to emphasize integrative and translational research opportunities. The invited speakers include renowned scientists in aging and related disciplines selected for their science and ability to stimulate debate. When selecting session topics, a particular effort was placed on keeping with the meeting theme of aging research as "The Ultimate Preventative Medicine" by highlighting basic research with clear translational potential for improving healthy aging in people. These include recent high profile work on Systemic Factors and Senescence, including circulating hormones and molecules that can perhaps be manipulated therapeutically; an entire session devoted to work aimed at identifying and validating Interventions That Promote Healthy Aging; and a session titled From bench to clinic: Translational approaches to healthy aging that will present results from the first efforts to apply discoveries from aging research in a clinical setting. These more translational sessions will be complemented by sessions focused squarely on important fundamental advances in the fast moving areas of the field such as Mechanisms of Cellular Homeostasis and Conserved mechanisms of healthy aging. We believe that all of the symposia topics are timely, and should stimulate discussion, collaborative endeavors and the development of possible therapeutic targets.