BOSTON, MA– M. Brandon Westover, M.D., 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. Westover is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
With the support of the BIG Award, Dr. Westover is developing methods to track brain aging by monitoring brain rhythms during sleep and studying how sleep problems affect brain health. His lab is creating computer programs that can measure brain health, so that they can assess how well treatments work.
Dr. Westover says "the award will allow us to develop a novel, easily deployable, low-cost marker of brain age that may help identify individuals with increased risk of age-related cognitive impairment."
"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.
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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
About AFAR – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to support and advance healthy aging through biomedical research. Founded in 1981, AFAR has championed the cause and supported the funding of science in healthier aging and age-related medicine. To address the shortage of physicians and researchers dedicated to the science of healthier aging, AFAR funds physicians and scientists probing the fundamental mechanisms of aging, as well as specific diseases associated with aging populations at critical points throughout their careers. Learn more at http://www.afar.org or follow AFAR.org on Twitter and Facebook.
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