Buck researcher awarded Brookdale ...( Novato CA -- Matthew S. Gill Ph.D. ...),Health

Novato, CA -- Matthew S. Gill, Ph.D., a scientist at the Buck Institute for Age Research, has been awarded a prestigious Brookdale Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Gill will use his award to support a two-year study of how hormones influence life span in microscopic worms.

Four Brookdale Fellowships were granted in the United States this year, and of those, just two were in science. The Brookdale Foundation invites applications only from respected institutions with departments devoted to age-related research. This year, nearly 80 organizations, mostly universities and medical schools, were asked to compete. It was the second year the Buck Institute was invited to apply.

The aim of the Brookdale National Fellowship program is to support young researchers who are likely to emerge as leaders in the field of aging. The award will pay Dr. Gills salary for two years, allowing him to continue his research without sacrificing time to seek funding grants. He will remain a Brookdale Fellow for life, and will be invited to attend biannual fellowship meetings in New York City at foundation expense.

The new study will be Dr. Gills second using the nematode C. elegans as a model. The microscopic worm is an ideal aging study subject because it is a very simple organism and lives only 20 days. This means that during his two-year fellowship, Dr. Gill will be able to observe the life span equivalent of 2,500 years of human life. He hopes the study eventually "will have meaning for human health."

Earlier in his career, Dr. Gill was involved in studies on the dynamics of how healthy children grow, and clinical studies on the effects of human growth hormone in people of very short stature. Dr. Gill remains keenly interested in how science can help individuals. "I like the idea that at some point, something I do might touch on somebodys life," he said.

Dr. Gills project mentor is Buck Associate Professor Gordon Lithgow, Ph.D. Dr. Lithgow descri
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Contact: Elizabeth Eshoo
eeshoo@buckinstitute.org
415-209-2261
Buck Institute for Age Research
4-Apr-2002