Research Program. Precision Nutrition and Aging

Program Director: Dr. Rafael de Cabo

Objectives:  This Program is focused on the study of the molecular and physiological effects that nutrition exerts on aging.

Aging is a complex, multi-organ degenerative process, strongly influenced by the genetic background and the environment. Accordingly, this program covers a wide range of biological topics: from the dissection of molecular pathways involved in degenerative pathologies, to the discovery and development of new bioactive products active against agingrelated pathologies, and including nutritional interventions with anti-aging properties, such as periodic fasting or calorie restriction.
 


Dr. Rafael de Cabo

Senior investigator of the Experimental Gerontology Section at NIA (NIH-USA) and Program Director of the Precision Nutrition and Aging Program at IMDEA Food.

Rafael de Cabo, PhD is currently the chief of the Translational Gerontology Branch at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. A native of Cordoba, Spain, he received his B.S. from the University of Cordoba, and his Ph.D. in 2000 from the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University. Upon completion of his graduate education, he trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2004, he was appointed as a tenure track investigator in the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology. His group applies both physiological and tissue-specific molecular approaches to investigate effects of nutritional interventions on basic mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases. Research within his unit strives to identify protective mechanisms invoked by caloric restriction and to evaluate the consequences of dietary interventions on lifespan, pathology, and behavioral function. Dr. de Cabo’s research balances the exploration of in vivo rodent, as well as in vitro, paradigms of caloric restriction.

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