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Adam Salmon, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Sam & Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity & Aging Studies

Deputy Director for the Basic Sciences

Professor, Molecular Medicine

Elsie Minifie, PhD Excellence Endowment in Aging Studies

Currently seeking M.S. & Ph.D. students

My lab's overarching interest is focused on delineating the fundamental mechanisms of the biology of aging to develop strategies to delay the aging process including the functional declines that lead to age-related disease, frailty and death. Aging is a biological process and interventions that slow or delay aging have the benefit of also preventing, or reversing, age-related diseases and pathology like cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes and others. The lab's long-term goal is to translate transformative geroscience approaches discovered in basic biology towards clinical application to improve the health of aging populations. 

Interventions to improve longevity and healthspan. The lab uses genetic, pharmaceutical and dietary interventions in mammalian models to better understand how longevity can be modulated and identify potential ways to move towards clinical translation. The lab is interested in better understanding how inhibition of mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) is capable of extending mammalian lifespan. The mTOR signaling pathway has been shown to have a central regulatory role in aging and age-related disease through genetic or pharmaceutical (rapamycin) intervention. We are interested in expanding these findings to better understand the interplay between diet and drug interventions. In addition, we use pre-clinical non-human primate models to test the effects of rapamycin on longevity in species closely related to humans. A second significant interest is in understanding how dietary factors modulate mitochondrial function and oxidative stress during the aging process as a means to better understand pro-longevity diet interventions.

Resilience in aging. How the body responds to challenging stimuli is likely directly related to resistance to disease, pathology and potential aging. Defining such "resilience" could then have significant impact on understanding the complex phenotypes of aging. We use a novel cell-based resilience model as a potential predictive marker of aging (longevity and disease) in mammalian models. We envision the development of cellular resilience models as beneficial for personalized medicine targeted to aging and age-related disease. 

Novel models of aging. Evolution has generated a world of aging models with the difference between the shortest- and longest-lived mammalian species being an order of magnitude. Probing the biology dictating such differences will help us better understand how aging is regulated. Moreover, continued development and refinement of animal and cell models has the potential to better replicate particular phenotypes of human aging.

Techniques: Animal and cellular physiology, mitochondrial and organismal metabolism

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