Biology of Aging graduate programs

[pulnimar]

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

Comments

[anonymous]

We do some aging studies in my lab, and yes we are primarily an in vivo (animal) lab.
Like the person before me said, animal research is not as bad as people believe it can be. Rats and mice in laboratories actually live longer lives than they do in wild. Honestly, they are treated much much better than they are in the wild. However, i'm not trying to change your beliefs on the issue.
You will find it to be very difficult to not be involved with animals over the entirety of your research career, particularly in the biology side of aging. It's too complex of an issue to just focus on a cell line; cellular aging is a different process than the system.
My suggestions would be to find a specific disease process that you're interested in studying, this will open up your options. Also you will need to be creative with what type of programs you are looking at (you may be able to find something in nutrition or exercise physiology programs).

[pulnimar]

Thanks. I have no interest in anything other than the molecular and cellular aspects of aging at this point.

Worse case scenario I'd probably end up doing research with yeast.

Can you mentioned further exactly what kinds of experimentation is run on the animals. I have significantly less of an issue with the occasional blood or tissue harvesting than with traumatic injury microRNA studies (for example).

[anonymous]

If you're committed to the fairly paradoxical plan of studying an organismal process without sacrificing any (higher) organisms, it seems to me that yeast is your BEST option rather than your worst option. I would be very careful when you communicate with the (many, excellent) yeast labs that work on aging that you don't sound like you're grudgingly considering them when you really want to work at the magical mouse lab where no one kills the mice, because that's what it sounds like here.

[pulnimar]

I'm not grudgingly considering anybody at this point, despite how it comes off. And yes, I know how to be politic and will be so when contacting them (though thanks for the warning). Ideally if I do do yeast systems I can test hypotheses developed in them on human tissue culture.

Ideally I'd like to work on organ model systems, but organ culture is still in its infancy. I've thought of going into the organ culture field, maybe I have to start tracking down these programs (along with the yeast-based labs).

[anonymous]

Our studies in my lab are just feeding studies. We do at times perform intracerebral surgeries so we are able to inject proteins directly into the area of the brain we study. But of course our animals are completely anesthetized during the surgery and receive ketoprofen (animal IB profen) injections for up to a week post-op. We're interested in energy balance (hypothalamus), so generally we feed them HF diets and determine how they respond to them behaviorally vs. in young rats. At sacrifice we harvest the MBH and a piece of liver, we also do body composition testing as well and serum assays.
I personally draw the line at collecting primary cells from animals for culture, but honestly you become very much desensitized to some of the things (but we don't do anything in my lab other than the sacrifice that is tricky).