NIH Selects Wisconsin for Nathan Shock Center in Aging Biology; John Denu Co-directs

Wisconsin Institute for Discovery faculty member John Denu has been selected to co-direct a new Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging at UW–Madison. Supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIH), the designation places the university among a small group of institutions leading foundational research on the metabolism of aging. Denu will co-lead the center with Roz Anderson and Dudley Lamming.

Nathan Shock Centers advance basic aging biology by pooling expertise and infrastructure. Each center includes a Research Development Core that awards pilot funds and convenes national meetings.  At UW–Madison, the new center will support collaborative projects across campus and build connections that accelerate discovery in this fast-growing research area that has significant implications for health span and longevity.

“As co-director of the new NIH-sponsored Nathan Shock Center, I am very excited about growing the community of researchers interested in the basic mechanisms of aging. Aging is the strongest risk factor for nearly every chronic disease, but our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of cellular aging are largely incomplete, though there is compelling evidence that aging rates are modifiable and might be unique to each of us. My hope is that we can leverage the Wisconsin Shock Center and incorporate longitudinal human studies within WID-hosted projects. A major goal of such synergies would be to uncover how genetics, epigenetics, diet, microbiome, environment, and lifestyle interact to influence individual aging rates—and, crucially, how those rates can be altered to improve human health,” says Denu.

--Laura RedEagle