Understanding Aging to Transform Health

Aging is the greatest single risk factor for nearly every major adult disease, including cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. As populations worldwide grow older, the challenge is not only to extend lifespan, but to improve health span—the years of life lived in good health.

At Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, aging is a central focus across our research enterprise. Scientists investigate the fundamental biological processes that drive aging, how and why our cells and tissues change over time and how these changes increase vulnerability to disease.

To translate these discoveries into impact, we combine basic biology with computational approaches, advanced technologies and drug development expertise, enabling new approaches to prevent and treat age-related diseases.

Our researchers study aging not only in model systems, but also in humans. Collaborations, such as the Cilento Initiative on Aging Outcomes, examine long-lived populations to uncover the biological, environmental and social factors that promote healthy aging.

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Aging Across Centers

Cancer Center
Aging is the greatest single risk factor for most common adult cancers. We study how age-related changes, such as DNA damage, cellular senescence and altered immune function, epigenetics and metabolism drive tumor initiation and progression, with the goal of developing targeted therapies for older populations.

Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases
Aging affects the heart, blood vessels and skeletal muscle, leading to conditions such as heart failure and sarcopenia. Research focuses on regeneration, stem cell function and tissue resilience to preserve mobility and cardiovascular health.

Center for Neurologic Diseases
Aging is the primary risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. We investigate how different forms of aging (premature aging, accelerated aging such as Down syndrome, and natural aging) impact neuronal, glia, and brain function, as well as cognition to identify therapeutic avenues such as epigenetic means of rejuvenation.

Center for Metabolic and Liver Diseases
Metabolic dysfunction increases with age, contributing to obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and systemic inflammation. Researchers explore how aging reshapes metabolism and identify pathways to restore metabolic balance.

Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Aging is a complex process that spans molecules, cells, tissues and populations. Correspondingly, a huge amount and variety of data are collected over years and integrated to study aging. We harness data science and artificial intelligence to identify new biomarkers of aging and age-associated diseases, predict disease risk and reveal novel targets for intervention.

Center for Therapeutics Discovery
Using advanced technologies, from robotically enabled high-throughput screening to in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, as well as medicinal and computational chemistry, we translate discoveries in aging biology into new therapeutic strategies.

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Symposia

La Jolla Aging Meeting
An annual gathering of Southern California-based postdoctoral researchers and students working in the fields of aging biology, who present short talks on their research. Organized by Sanford Burnham Prebys and Salk Institute. Hosted at Salk.

CIAO Study
An annual gathering of scientists and collaborators in the Cilento Initiative on Aging Outcomes (CIAO) study, an international, longitudinal investigation of centenarians living in the Cilento region of Italy. Meetings in Italy and the U.S. cover new data and findings. The CIAO study is sponsored by Sanford Burnham Prebys, UC San Diego, Sapienza Universita di Roma and Great Health Science.

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Latest News

Aging Research

Helping Ourselves

The ability to fend off infectious diseases, which represent a mortal threat to millions, rests with the body’s immune system, which provides protection through various, layered and complex defenses.

If the immune system fails to function properly, if it becomes too weak, it can increase susceptibility to infectious disease. If it becomes too strong or dysfunctional, it can result in  harmful inflammation and autoimmune diseases such as lupus and arthritis and even cancer.

By studying pathogen-host interactions, innate and humoral immunity, inflammation and T cell checkpoint regulation at even the smallest of interactions, we seek to better understand how the immune system works, why it sometimes doesn’t and find new treatments for endemic and pandemic infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, cancer and inflammatory conditions.

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Latest News

Immunity, Inflammation and Microbiology Research

Everything Stems Here

Stem cells are the body’s source of raw materials. These are the cells from which all other cells with specialized functions, such as immune or neurological, are generated. Researchers can now create and differentiate stem cells in the lab with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

We use iPSCs to probe the origins and processes of disease, to deepen understanding of developmental biology and what it means to be healthy or recover from injury and illness. This basic knowledge helps drive the engines of discovery and therapeutic solutions. 

Evan Snyder, MD, PhD
Director

An Uncommon Concern

A “rare disease” is a condition afflicting less than 200,000 people in the U.S. In sheer numbers, however, they are not so rare. Scientists have documented more than 7,000 affecting approximately 30 million Americans. 

Thanks to immunizations and improving health care, most childhood diseases are uncommon. But rarity can be a curse. The most difficult aspect of being stricken by a rare disease may be the difficulty in getting a correct diagnosis. Rare diseases are frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. On average, patients with rare diseases wait nine years to finally receive an accurate diagnosis, a figure that hasn’t changed in 45 years. Half of all rare disease cases involve children, of which one-third will die before they are 5 years old, before doctors even figure out what killed them.

Our mission is to advance research and understanding of diseases that predominantly affect children, which are under-addressed or ignored altogether. These include diseases such as diabetes, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, hypophosphatasia (bone disorders) and congenital disorders of glycosylation.

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Symposium

Rare Disease Day

Rare Disease Day is an international initiative occurring on the last day of February to raise awareness of rare diseases as a significant public health concern. Every year Sanford Burnham Prebys invites scientists, physicians, patients, families and advocates to highlight progress, exchange ideas and concerns on selected disorders. This year’s focus is on congenital disorders of glycosylation, an umbrella term that covers more than 190 rare (fewer than 2,000 children worldwide) genetic diseases involving a complex chemical process called glycosylation.

When this metabolic process, which involves attaching essential sugar molecules to proteins, doesn’t work correctly, numerous, often severe, consequences in infancy and childhood occur, from poor growth and developmental delays to stroke-like episodes and heart problems.

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Leadership

Director

Latest News

Children’s Health Research