UCs Launch Center To Study Aging

Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco have joined forces to create a new research center that will investigate the aging process and focus on creating new treatments to address age-related diseases.

The center, known as the Glenn Consortium for Research in Aging, was funded by a $3 million grant from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research in Santa Barbara.

Initially, researchers will focus on studying the prion, a malformed protein that can multiply exponentially in the brain. 

High levels of prion in the brain is linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob or “mad cow” disease, and may also be connected to Alzheimer's disease. 

The discoverer of prions, Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D., a UCSF professor of neurology and the Glenn center's co-director, won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work in discovering the protein.

“The newest research indicates that Alzheimer’s alone kills as many people every year as cancer does, but it only receives one-tenth of the funding that we dedicate to cancer research,” Prusiner said. “We are grateful to The Glenn Foundation for their support in the battle against neurodegenerative diseases.”

The center will be staffed by 25 researchers from both UC Berkeley and UCSF. Officials indicated more recruitments would occur in the future.