Dr. Matt Kaeberlein
Chief Science Officer at Optispan, Inc., Affiliate Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington, and Co-Director of the Dog Aging Project.
Dr. Matt Kaeberlein is the Chief Science Officer at Optispan, Inc., Affiliate Professor of Oral Health Sciences
at the University of Washington, and Co-Director of the Dog Aging Project.
Dr. Kaeberlein’s research interests are focused on understanding biological mechanisms of aging in order to facilitate translational interventions that promote healthspan and improve quality of life for people and companion animals. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Aging Association (AGE), and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Dr. Kaeberlein has published more than 250 papers in the field of aging biology and has received several prestigious awards including young investigator awards from the Ellison Medical Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association, the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research Award, the Murdock Trust Award, the NIA Nathan W. Shock Award, and the Robert W. Kleemeier Award for outstanding research in the field of gerontology. Dr. Kaeberlein is the founding Director of the University of Washington Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute, former Director of the NIH Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program at the University of Washington, and former CEO and Chair of the American Aging Association.
Geroscience approaches to increase healthspan in companion animals: Challenges and opportunities
We are in the early stages of a paradigm shift in the way that owners and veterinarians view companion animal health, with growing recognition that biological aging is the core determinant of healthspan and lifespan for most companion animals. Geroscience refers to the mechanisms that connect aging with age-related functional decline and disease, and geroscience therapeutics represent attempts to target those mechanisms in order to improve healthspan and lifespan by preventing or reversing the negative consequences of biological aging. For more than a decade, The Dog Aging Project has been a leader in this paradigm shift, identifying novel determinants of biological aging in dogs and performing the first veterinary longevity clinical trial of a geroscience intervention. Recently, these efforts have inspired a new generation of for-profit entities seeking to bring geroscience therapeutics to the companion animal market. Here I will provide an update on the Dog Aging Project and review the progress, opportunities, and challenges in this space.