Biology of Aging graduate programs
I'll be graduating with a B.S. in Biology (math minor) next May, and am ultimately looking to do research in the science of aging (aka geroscience, biogerontology, longevity research).
I've checked out the Nathan Shock Centers in the Basic Biology of Aging (NSCs) as potential graduate schools. The thing is I have a real, real problem with personal involvement in animal research involving the death or debility of said animals (I can work with colleagues who do such research, but cannot personally kill or disable the animals), and it's nearly impossible to find a lab or program which doesn't use animals this way (the Jackson lab [jax.org] NSC explicitly mentions mouse model research in all of its labs; U Washington seems to be mostly open to current grad students or undergrads with more research experience than I have; U Texas San Antonio emailed me a response saying it wouldn't be possible to study there without animal research, and wished me luck elsewhere; I'm still waiting to hear back from Dominican U and the Buck Institute on their M.S. program).
There have to be people doing research in geroscience or longevity who don't go around sacrificing animals. I can handle animal experimentation if the experimentation is expected to increase life span and/or quality of life in the animal (even should those expectations prove wrong and a tragedy occur). Even more, I'd prefer research involving in vivo human cell, tissue and organ models.
Does anyone know of programs I could apply to that meet these ethical requirements? I'm willing to apply to programs in allied fields such as stem cell research, regenerative biology, genetic engineering, degenerative biology and maybe even developmental, tissue engineering, and other disciplines, if such could get me into post-doc research in the science of aging. I'm most interested in the cellular and molecular sciences within these disciplines.
If you have any ideas that aren't off-the-wall, I'd really appreciate them.
I've checked out the Nathan Shock Centers in the Basic Biology of Aging (NSCs) as potential graduate schools. The thing is I have a real, real problem with personal involvement in animal research involving the death or debility of said animals (I can work with colleagues who do such research, but cannot personally kill or disable the animals), and it's nearly impossible to find a lab or program which doesn't use animals this way (the Jackson lab [jax.org] NSC explicitly mentions mouse model research in all of its labs; U Washington seems to be mostly open to current grad students or undergrads with more research experience than I have; U Texas San Antonio emailed me a response saying it wouldn't be possible to study there without animal research, and wished me luck elsewhere; I'm still waiting to hear back from Dominican U and the Buck Institute on their M.S. program).
There have to be people doing research in geroscience or longevity who don't go around sacrificing animals. I can handle animal experimentation if the experimentation is expected to increase life span and/or quality of life in the animal (even should those expectations prove wrong and a tragedy occur). Even more, I'd prefer research involving in vivo human cell, tissue and organ models.
Does anyone know of programs I could apply to that meet these ethical requirements? I'm willing to apply to programs in allied fields such as stem cell research, regenerative biology, genetic engineering, degenerative biology and maybe even developmental, tissue engineering, and other disciplines, if such could get me into post-doc research in the science of aging. I'm most interested in the cellular and molecular sciences within these disciplines.
If you have any ideas that aren't off-the-wall, I'd really appreciate them.