The Starr Foundation invested $37 million to the University and Brown University Health to help create the Starr Healthspan Innovation Alliance, a new collaborative program that aims to bridge together laboratory research and clinical treatments for research on aging.
A crucial aspect of the new Starr Healthspan Innovation Alliance is the collaboration between Brown’s Center on the Biology of Aging “lab-based researchers and the clinical trials infrastructure at Brown University Health,” Mukesh Jain, senior associate provost for life sciences and dean of medicine and biological sciences, wrote in an email to The Herald.
The center works to uncover what drives aging at the molecular level, according to John Sedivy, a professor of biology and the center’s associate dean and director.
“Research by groups in the center has discovered fundamental regulators and causes of aging,” Professor of Biology Marc Tatar wrote in an email to The Herald. “We … have laid several blocks down for the foundation of modern work on the mechanisms of aging.”
Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry Jill Kreiling, who is also the center’s associate director, said that the center hopes to use the funding to “hire new faculty that are working on the biology of aging, as well as supporting some of the labs that are currently here.” She added that the investment will have a meaningful impact on the center’s future research output.
The center will use the investment to hire two new positions — a senior and a junior researcher — and to support the mentorship of new students, according to Sedivy.
Tatar wrote that the addition of new faculty will help propel the center, and that their current team has begun acting as a “critical mass of labs that generates synergy and creative work.” He added that the investment will enable the center to “continue making breakthrough discoveries.”
Kreiling also said that the grant will allow the center to “achieve international recognition.” The 10 years that the center has been active is “really not that long in the grand scheme of things,” she said, adding that the investment will heighten the center’s credibility in the aging field.
According to Kreiling, the investment will be “treated more like a grant than a gift.”
The University could potentially use gift funding for any purpose, she explained, noting that gifts to universities are typically endowed, meaning that they are invested. But the Starr Foundation gave the money specifically for it to be spent, and they want the center to reapply for further funding after a five-year period, Kreiling said.
The foundation has “specific goals that they want to see,” including research on aging in women, she added.
As the center moves to diversify their funding base and increase philanthropic funding, the investment will also help fund a variety of expenses, from student stipends to new equipment, Sedivy said.
“The aging center is essentially a freestanding research institute,” he said, adding that most of their funding comes from outside sources such as the National Institutes of Health.
Angel Lopez is a senior staff writer covering Science and Research. He’s a sophomore from Tyler, Texas and planning to study neuroscience and literary arts. In his free time, you can find him playing ping pong, listening to music, or reading.
