LA JOLLA, CA-- Peter Adams, Ph.D. has been awarded a two-year, $300,000 Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award. The Glenn Foundation's BIG Award, administered by the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), provides $300,000 for research projects aimed at discoveries that address human aging and healthspan.

Dr. Adams is a Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, CA. SBP is an independent biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding basic human biology and disease, and advancing scientific discoveries to profoundly impact human health.

With the support of the award, Dr. Adams will identify ways to prevent misfolding of chromatin (a mixture of DNA and protein) in the nucleus which causes cell and tissue dysfunction in aging.

Dr. Adams says "the BIG awards are important as they fund higher risk, potentially transformative projects with less preliminary data. This support will allow me to test the existence of chromostasis (chromatin homeostasis), and identify the genes involved."

"Our aim is to support research that leads to a greater understanding of biological aging that will contribute to the development of treatments or preventive measures that extend human healthspan," notes Mark R. Collins, President of The Glenn Foundation for Medical Research.

Since 2005, the Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Awards have provided more than $5,800,000 to 32 investigators nationwide. Awardees are selected by a committee of distinguished scientists working in the field of aging research.

"We are pleased to collaborate with the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to translate the knowledge in the basic biology of aging into therapies and interventions that will help us all live healthier and longer as we grow older," notes Stephanie Lederman, Ed.M., Executive Director, AFAR.

###

About the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research - Founded by Paul F. Glenn in 1965, the mission of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research is to extend the healthy years of life through research on mechanisms of biology that govern normal human aging and its related physiological decline, with the objective of translating research into interventions that will extend healthspan with lifespan. Learn more at http://www. glennfoundation. org