Evenings at Whitney April 13

Evenings at Whitney April 13

Published: Monday, March 20, 2023

The Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience continues Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 7 p.m. with the program titled “Fountains of youth discovered through the biology of aging”. Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Aging, College of Medicine at the University of Florida, will be the speaker.

This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture.

REGISTER TO WATCH ONLINE:

https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gB1JOqanSIeyrBNDVw_DvQ

Although aging is complex his team has made significant advances in better understanding the biology of aging by understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms. As they learn more about these biological pathways’ (senescence, genome instability, oxidative damage, epigenetics) experiments can be designed to better understand when and how pathological disease changes begin with aging. Furthermore, this research provides important clues toward developing interventions and optimizing the timing of specific interventions. The overall goal is to improve physical and cognitive health, prevent disease and thereby optimizing the quality of life.


Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD

Christiaan Leeuwenburgh received his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne in 1995 where his doctoral work focused on the regulation of glutathione homeostasis during chronic glutathione deficiencies and/or supplementation. He completed postdoctoral studies in Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology and Division of Atherosclerosis, Nutrition and Lipid Research at Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis. He became an Assistant Professor in 1998 at the University of Florida and the Director of the Biochemistry of Aging Laboratory. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002, Professor in 2007. In 2005 he joined the newly created Department of Aging and Geriatric Research, College of Medicine and Institute on Aging at the University of Florida. Dr. Leeuwenburgh’s major research focus is to understand the molecular mechanism of iron homeostasis, oxidative stress and autophagy with age . He is conducting research on the role of iron deregulation, ferroptosis, and inflammation in the loss of human skeletal muscle with age and it’s role in human frailty. He has participated in NIH workshops focused on the biology of aging and geriatric research of the National Institute on Aging. He has published papers in Cell, JAMA, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Journal of Physiology and Science.