Aging is the most significant risk factor for human disease. Human cells and tissues age at different rates depending on their intrinsic properties, where they are in the body and environmental exposures. Yet, scientists do not fully understand this variability and how it contributes to overall human aging, risk for disease or therapeutic responses.

The Salk Institute will establish a world-class San Diego Nathan Shock Center (SD-NSC), a consortium with Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and the University of California San Diego to study cellular and tissue aging in humans. The Center will be funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health and is expected to total $5 million over the next 5 years.

Salk Professor Gerald Shadel led the successful grant proposal and will be director of the center. Professors Rusty Gage, Martin Hetzer and Tatyana Sharpee will lead several of the key research and development core facilities.

The SD-NSC will be one of a network of eight Nathan Shock Centers nationwide, which are named after Nathan Shock, Director of the Gerontology Research Center at National Institutes of Health for nearly 35 years and regarded by many as the “father of gerontology.”