Biology of Aging 2012

The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on the Genetic, epigenetic, inflammatory, and metabolic origins of aging will provide a forum for exploring the interplay between discovery of basic aging mechanisms in model organisms and their successful validation in humans. Aging is a multifactorial and complex process. The symposium will focus on major developments that help to unravel this complexity: the use of unbiased screens in humans with exceptional longevity to identify genetic signatures of aging; the discovery of epigenetic mechanisms based on microRNAs and CpG island methylation that modulate expression of the genome; the role of the intra-uterine environment in forming lifelong trajectories of health and well-being; and the contribution of cellular dysfunction and senescence to an inflammatory microenvironment that leads to frailty, chronic disease, and diminished health span. All of these greatly expand the horizons of aging research.

The GRC on the Biology of Aging has been held every 18 months since 1962. More than at any previous time in the history of this symposium, the field is primed for the integration of the basic biology of aging, which has been and continues to be elucidated in a variety of model organisms, with translational research into human health- and life span. There is no more important area for discussion, therefore, than mechanisms that inherently lend themselves to therapeutic manipulation and drug discovery - epigenetic and genetic changes that accompany aging in models and humans, in particular in humans with exceptional longevity.

The 2012 GRC on the Biology of Aging will again offer a Gordon Research Seminar organized along the theme of the symposium, which will be held immediately preceding the GRC on the Biology of Aging. Junior investigators, such as students, postdocs, and clinical trainees, desiring introductory sessions designed to prepare them