The Modulation of Aging through Altered Proteostasis (Joint Symposium of Physoc and APS)

Symposium — Wednesday, April 26, 2024 — 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM — , Room W196B
The Physiological Society-UK (PHYSOC) — Chair: Benjamin Miller — Co-Chair:

Recently there has been significant research effort in to identifying strategies that slow the aging process, since slowing this process also improves late-life health (healthspan). Aging can be modulated in model organisms through diet, drugs and genetics, but the current challenge is to identify how these interventions act mechanistically to elicit their effects. This mechanistic knowledge is critical if we hope to translate these findings to humans. The ability to maintain protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is emerging as a key process underlying aging and disease. Proteostasis refers to cellular control of the concentration, location, and conformation of individual proteins. However, it is yet unknown if the maintenance of proteostasis is a conserved phenotype across different models of slowed ageing and if altering proteostasis is a legitimate therapeutic target for slowing aging and healthspan. This symposium proposes to introduce how the maintenance of proteostasis potentially leads to slowed aging and how that knowledge could be used to therapeutically target the aging process and increase human healthspan. Since the meeting is a partnership of the APS and The Physiological Society, the symposium will highlight current research using a variety of aging models, demonstrate a range of methods to determine proteostasis and highlights integrated responses across multiple tissues.  From the United States, Dr. Benjamin Miller will chair the session.  From the UK, Professor Colin Selman will present a talk titled: ER proteostasis and aging: Insights from long-lived mutant mice and from the United States, Dr. Karyn Hamilton will present a talk titled: Evidence for mitochondrial proteostasis as a shared characteristic of slowed aging.  Finally, two early career speakers will be selected from the submitted abstracts.  This ensemble was carefully chosen to bring together expertise in a physiological approach to the study of proteostasis and aging, and to ensure gender, geographic and career-stage balance in this symposium.

Speakers

• ER Proteostasis and Aging: Insights from Long-Lived Mutant Mice
  Colin Selman — , Univ. of Glasgow


• Evidence for Mitochondrial Proteostasis as a Shared Characteristic of Slowed Aging
  Karyn Hamilton — , Colorado State Univ


• Role of Nerve-Muscle Interactions and ROS in Regulation of Muscle Proteostasis with Aging
  Aphrodite Vasilaki — , Univ. of Liverpool


• Mitophagy's Role in Maintaining Mitochondrial Proteostasis and Metabolic Health
  Josh Drake — , Univ. of Virginia