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Genes, Phenes, and Dreams of Immortality: The 2003 Kleemeier Award Lecture

Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Address correspondence to Thomas E. Johnson, PhD, Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309. E-mail: johnsont{at}colorado.edu

Abstract

The 2002 Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America was awarded to Thomas E. Johnson, PhD, of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Johnson was the pioneer who first applied genetic analyses to the study of the aging processes in Caenorhabditis elegans and who introduced the nematode as an aging model. Longer life span was chosen as a surrogate marker for slowed aging. Here Dr. Johnson describes his role(s) in the isolation of age-1, the first longevity mutant, which can more than double the life span and which slows the rate of aging more than twofold. He also reviews research suggesting conservation of function and applicability to intervention by pharmacological targeting of the Age-1 pathway. Current work by biotechnology companies targets this and other basic discoveries in an attempt to postpone human aging.