Welcome to the website of the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Research and Education on Aging! Our mission is to investigate the basic processes that cause aging, with the goal of improving and extending human health span.

What's New

CREA Updates!

CREA's previous meeting Trends in the Study of Research and Education in Aging and Longevity that featured speakers Dr. Judith Campisi, Dr. Jan Vijg, and Dr. Greg M. Cole was greeted with great success. The event was well received by audiences coming from faculty members, students, and community members who came from different disciplines, but ultimately shared a mutual interest in the study of aging. Photo of the day's event is now available here for browsing.

In addition, a summary of Dr. Jan Vijg's presentation given during the event is now available as part of the CREA Interviews page.

The powerpoint file of Dr. Greg M. Cole's presentation Current and planned strategies to establish academic programs of aging and longevity across the U.S. is also made available for download here.

CREA Welcomes Dr. Jan Vijg:
Trends in the Study of Research and Education in Aging and Longevity

Dr. Jan Vijg, who has recently joined the Buck Institute for Age Research as a faculty, is invited by CREA to discuss the current trends in aging and longevity research. The welcoming will be held on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 from 4:00-6:00pm at 2063 VLSB and afterwards at the VLSB courtyard. He will be joined by Dr. Greg M. Cole, Professor of Gerontology and Neurology at UCLA and also a member of the CREA advisory board, who will quickly explore the current strategies in establishing academic programs of aging and longevity in our nation.

The program of the event can be found here (pdf). Please RSVP to Dr. Timiras if interested.

Spring 2007 courses on aging at UC Berkeley

Dr. Paola Timiras will be teaching MCB 135K: Physiology of Aging (course syllabus is available here). Please check the CREA courses page for more information on aging courses that are currently being offered.

MCB Seminar - Dietary Restriction and its Geroprotective Effects

The Department of Molecular & Cell Biology will host an informal seminar, titled Dietary Restriction and its Geroprotective Effects, by Professor Ramesh Sharma from the Department of Biochemistry of North Eastern Hill University of Shillong, India. It will be held on Friday, September 8th, 2006 from 3:30-5:50pm at 2063 VLSB. All UCB faculties and students are welcome to attend. Community members who are interested should contact Dr. Timiras by email to ensure that seats are available. Refreshments will precede the seminar.

Eighth International Symposium on Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Aging at Bregenz

The Eighth International Symposium on Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Aging will be held from July 23rd-28th, 2006, at the Kloster Mehrerau monastery in Bregenz, Austria. A regular at this annual symposium, the Timiras Lab of CREA's Dr. Paola Timiras will feature five posters to be presented at this year's event by the undergraduate researchers. Please refer to the Research page for the abstracts submitted this year. You can also take a look at the experience from the 2004 participants here.

*Update* A photo collection of this year's event from student researchers of the Timiras Lab could be found here.

"Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel"

A young Dr. Brooks (left), running the 400m at the Intercollegiate
Championships, shows amazing lactate clearnace capacity and power.

Dr. George A. Brooks, Professor of Integrative Biology and a member of the CREA advisory board, has been recently featured in the New York Times (original article published on May 16th, 2006) for his research on lactic acid metabolism. For years, physiologists and athletes have been convinced that lactic acid, also known as lactate, accumulates in the body after intense exercise, leading to muscle fatigue. Dr. Brooks however, believes in the opposite. He postulates that not only the body is able to clear itself of the lactic acid, but that it further utilizes the substance as a source of fuel for oxidative metabolism. In his most recent paper Colocalization of MCT1, CD147, and LDH in mitochondrial inner membrane of L6 muscle cells: evidence of a mitochondrial lactate oxidation complex (full text and pdf), published in the June 2006 issue of the American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology, and Metabolism, Dr. Brooks shows the clustering of three crucial proteins necessary for lactic acid metabolism on the mitochondrial membrane. The colocalization of the lactate shuttle which translocates lactate into the mitochondria, the lactate dehydrogenase which starts the catabolism, and the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase which uses oxygen for the burning of lactate, serves as a direct proof to Dr. Brooks' original hypothesis.

This research is also featured on the UC Berkeley NewsCenter website at:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/19_lactate.shtml

Past news