Redwood Credit Union’s International Credit Union Day Celebration Raises More than $36,000 for Local Food Banks

Redwood Credit Union (RCU) joined credit unions around the world to celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day, a time to pay tribute to the credit union difference and the important role credit unions play in their communities.

One of the ways RCU honored the day was by donating 25 cents to local food banks in Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Lake, San Francisco, and Mendocino counties each time members used their RCU Visa® debit or credit card on October 15. In total, more than $36,000 was donated to Redwood Empire Food Bank, Community Action of Napa Valley, and SF-Marin Food Bank.

RCU also ran a contest on its Facebook page where members could win cash prizes. And a coloring page for children was made available for download on the credit union’s website.

“Credit unions were founded on the principle of ‘people helping people,’ and International Credit Union Day celebrates the benefits credit unions provide,” says RCU President and CEO, Brett Martinez. “As economic instability has led to food insecurity, doubling the impact on local food banks, we can all take part in ensuring no one goes hungry. We’re honored to be part of an industry that supports its communities.”

Credit unions are cooperatives, which means they’re owned by their members, with each member having an equal share. Credit union earnings are returned to members through better rates, fewer fees, and access to competitive services such as a nationwide network of more than 30,000 fee-free ATMs. Anyone can bank with a credit union; most credit unions are community based, which means they can serve anyone living or working in a specific geographic region.

About Redwood Credit Union
Founded in 1950, Redwood Credit Union is a full-service financial institution providing personal and business banking to consumers and businesses in the North Bay and San Francisco. RCU offers complete financial services including checking and savings accounts, auto and home loans, credit cards, online and mobile banking, business services, commercial and SBA lending, and more. Wealth management and investment services are available through CUSO Financial Services L.P., and through RCU Services Group (RCU’s wholly owned subsidiary), insurance and auto-purchasing services are also available. RCU has $5.8 billion in assets and serves approximately 370,000 members with full-service branches from San Francisco to Ukiah. For more information, call 1 (800) 479-7928, visit redwoodcu.org, or follow RCU on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for news and updates.

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging Finds A Metabolite Produced by the Body Increases Lifespan and Dramatically Compresses Late-Life Morbidity in Mice

Middle-aged mice that had the naturally-occurring metabolite alpha-ketaglutarate (AKG) added to their chow had a better “old age.” They were healthier as they aged and experienced a dramatically shorter time of disease and disability before they died, a first for research involving mammals. Results from the double-blinded study, published in Cell Metabolism, were based on clinically-relevant markers of healthspan.

Previous studies show that blood plasma levels of AKG can drop up to 10-fold as we age.

Fasting and exercise, already shown to promote longevity, increase the production of AKG. AKG is not found in the normal diet, making supplementation the only feasible way to restore its levels.

“The standard for efficacy in research on aging is whether interventions actually improve healthspan. We’ve reached that mark here with a compound that is naturally produced by the body and is generally shown to be safe,” said Buck professor and senior author Gordon Lithgow, PhD. Noting that some of the mice did experience moderate lifespan extension (the average was around 12%), measures of healthspan increased more than 40 percent. Lithgow says the goal is always to compress the time of disease and frailty. “The nightmare scenario has always been life extension with no reduction in disability. In this study, the treated middle-aged mice got healthier over time. Even the mice that died early saw improvements in their health, which was really surprising and encouraging.”

AKG is involved in many fundamental physiological processes. It contributes to metabolism, providing energy for cellular processes. It helps stimulate collagen and protein synthesis and influences age-related processes including stem cell proliferation. AKG inhibits the breakdown of protein in muscles, making it a popular supplement among athletes. It also has been used to treat osteoporosis and kidney diseases.

“The mice that were fed AKG showed a decrease in levels of systemic inflammatory cytokines,” said Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, Pharm.D, PhD, Buck postdoctoral fellow and lead scientist on the study. “Treatment with AKG promoted the production of Interleukin 10 (IL-10) which has anti-inflammatory properties and helps maintain normal tissue homeostasis.  Chronic inflammation is a huge driver of aging. We think suppression of inflammation could be the basis for the extension of lifespan and probably healthspan, and are looking forward to more follow up in this regard.” She also added, “We observed no significant adverse effects upon chronic administration of the metabolite, which is very important.”

Asadi said many of the study results were sex specific, with female mice generally faring better than males. Fur color and coat condition were dramatically improved in the treated females; the animals also saw improvement in gait and kyphosis, a curvature of the spine often seen in aging. The females also saw improvements in piloerection, which involves involuntary contraction of small muscles at the base of hair follicles. “That measure relates to pain and how uncomfortable the animal is,” she said. “The treated animals showed an extended ability to groom themselves.” Asadi said male mice treated with AKG were better able to maintain muscle mass as they aged, had improvements in gait and grip strength, less kyphosis and exhibited fewer tumors and better eye health.

Researchers say the consistent longevity effects of AKG in yeast, C. elegans, and now mice, show that the metabolite is affecting an evolutionary conserved aging mechanism which is likely to be translational to humans. A clinical trial of AKG involving 45 to 65 year olds is being planned at the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University of Singapore (NUS).  “This trial will look at the epigenetic clock as well as standard markers of aging, including pulse wave velocity, and inflammation among others,” said Buck professor Brian Kennedy, PhD, who is also the Director of the Centre at NUS and senior co-author of the study. “This opportunity will allow us to go beyond anecdotal evidence. Real clinical data will help inform physicians and consumers eager to improve health within the context of aging.”

Lithgow says basic research in the nematode worm C. elegans started AKG’s journey to human clinical trials, noting that the first evidence that AKG extended lifespan in the microscopic worm came in 2014. “We tested AKG in distinct strains of the worm in 2017 and determined that treatment hit conserved aging pathways in the animals.  The fact that it is poised to be rigorously tested in humans just a few years later shows how quickly research can move from the lab bench to the clinic. Never underestimate the knowledge that comes from studying this tiny worm.”

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/a-metabolite-produced-by-the-body-increases-lifespan-and-dramatically-compresses-late-life-morbidity-in-mice/

The Buck Institute’s Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality Announces First Grant Recipients

The Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (GCRLE) at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, made possible by the Bia-Echo Foundation, announces its inaugural recipients of its GCRLE Scholar Awards. The 22 recipients comprise a global group who share a vision of advancing research to better understand the underlying causes of female reproductive aging. Grantees were selected by a Scientific Advisory Council composed of leaders in the fields of Aging and Reproductive Biology. Grantees range from early career scientists to established scholars in the field.

“I am incredibly excited by the potential impact for the GCRLE. The ability to convene a diverse community from across institutions will positively and constructively impact this field and move science forward in a way that simply would not be possible otherwise,” says GCRLE Pilot Award recipient Iain Cheeseman, PhD, of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. GCRLE Junior Scholar Award recipient Lynae Brayboy, MD of Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin adds, “I think reproductive scientists can often exist in isolation and don’t have the unique experience GCRLE is fostering…I think it also very challenging for physician scientists to find support in the field of reproductive aging and reproductive biology in general.”

The mission of the GCRLE is to support breakthrough research on reproductive aging through funding, training, infrastructure, programs to support women in science, and a collaborative intellectual network. The GCRLE network will enable grantees and all consortium members to pursue support and collaboration across multidisciplinary approaches and institutions, thereby establishing a foundation on which to grow a diverse and sustainable research ecosystem.

Grants totaling $7.4 million will be awarded over 2 years, with flexibility in budgeting for maximum creativity and non-traditional support such as childcare. “We are thrilled to welcome these promising researchers as our very first grant recipients.” says Jennifer Garrison, PhD, GCRLE Faculty Director and Assistant Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. “The GCRLE unites two disciplines – reproductive science and geroscience – in an unprecedented way to investigate an area of biology that has tangible societal and clinical implications. Our goal is to foster truly bold, innovative scientists with the potential to transform the field. Beyond funding, we are building an infrastructure to grow a vibrant community and developing creative programs to break down gender barriers in scientific research careers. This is the beginning of something big!”

The GCRLE is anchored at the Buck’s Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality which was established in 2018 with a gift from attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan. The Center is the first research facility in the world focused solely on reproductive equality and ovarian aging, a key determinant not only of fertility but of overall health and longevity. The GCRLE was established in 2019 with a gift from Shanahan’s Bia-Echo Foundation to build the global ecosystem for this new and exciting field of research.

2020 Inaugural GCRLE Scholars

The Senior Scholar Award supports established investigators who are thought leaders in their fields and are recognized for substantial contributions of creative and productive research.

2020 Senior Scholar Award Recipients:

Holly Ingraham, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
“Identifying Novel Drivers in Central Control of Female Reproduction”

Coleen Murphy, Ph.D.
Princeton University
“Defining a “Clock” for Female Reproductive Decline”

Mary Zelinski, Ph.D.
Oregon Health & Science University
“Interventions for Ovarian Aging”

The Junior Scholar Award supports newly independent investigators with outstanding promise as they are establishing their own labs.

2020 Junior Scholar Award Recipients:

Bérénice Benayoun, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
“Establishing new age-relevant mouse models of menopause”

Lynae Brayboy, M.D.
Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin
“Dysfunctional MDR-1 disrupts mitochondrial homeostasis in the oocyte”

Ingrid Fetter-Pruneda, Ph.D.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
“The molecular and cellular basis of high fecundity in social insects”

Amanda Kallen, M.D.
Yale University
“Ovarian Senescence as a Novel Driver of Female Reproductive Aging”

The Pilot Award is designed to foster innovative collaborative or novel research projects that have the potential for high impact and high reward at an accelerated rate.

Pilot Award Recipients:

Ivana Celic, Ph.D.
Tulane University
“LINE1 Retrotransposons in Female Reproductive Aging”

Iain Cheeseman, Ph.D.
Whitehead Institute/MIT
“Analyzing centromere rejuvenation during female reproductive aging”

Marco Conti, M.D.
University of California, San Francisco
“mRNA translation program and oocyte aging”

Arjumand Ghazi, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh
“Genetic & Chemical Modulation of Splicing to Combat Reproductive Senescence”

Polina Lishko, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley
“Endocannabinoid signaling in the mammalian ovary and reproductive longevity”

Zita Santos, Ph.D., Carlos Ribeiro, Ph.D.
Champalimaud Foundation, Portugal
“Metabolic reprogramming, dietary nutrients and food cravings in ovary aging”

Yousin Suh, Ph.D.
Columbia University
“Genetic Control of Ovarian Aging in Humans”

The Postdoctoral Scholar Award supports training imaginative junior scientists who will lead the next generation of reproductive aging researchers.

2020 Postdoctoral Scholar Award Recipients:

Cristina Quesada Candela, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburg​
“Proteasomal Targets Driving Meiotic Failure During Reproductive Aging”

Ana Milunovic Jevtic, Ph.D., D.V.M.
University of California, Berkeley
“The role of endocannabinoid hydrolase ABHD2 in the ovarian aging”

Gul Bikem Soygur Kaya, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
“How duration of meiotic prophase affects development and aging of oocytes”

Min Hoo Kim, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
“Elucidating causal effects of the microbiome on reproductive aging”

Seungsoo Kim, Ph.D.
Columbia University Medical Center
“Integrative bioinformatic analysis of human ovarian aging and healthspan”

Olfat Malak, Ph.D.
Buck Institute for Research on Aging
“Role of sympathetic transmission in the regulation of ovarian aging”

Farners Amargant i Riera, Ph.D.
Northwestern University
“Targeting fibrosis and inflammation to extend reproductive longevity”

Zijing Zhang, Ph.D.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
“The impact of ovarian macrophage population on mouse ovarian aging”

About the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality

The Buck Institute, through the generous support of the Bia Echo Foundation, has launched a novel, global collaborative Consortium dedicated to facilitating and accelerating research on female reproductive longevity and equality. The end of fertility sets off a cascade of negative health effects in a woman’s body. As a society, every aspect of a woman’s life is influenced by the fact that reproductive capacity is limited — overall health, family planning, career decisions. The downstream consequences are clear, but why women undergo a precipitous decline in fertility at midlife and what sets it in motion are a mystery. Despite its profound impact on health and well-being, female reproductive aging is an understudied topic.

The Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (GCRLE) is advancing research to better understand the underlying causes of female reproductive aging. This has implications for everyone – we think that understanding the limits on reproductive capacity will provide important clues about aging in other tissues.  Through funding, collaboration, and innovation, we hope to accelerate the pace of discovery and inform the path to intervention. We believe we can profoundly alter the societal balance toward equality for women by defining what leads to menopause and developing interventions to slow or reverse it. Our goal is to build the field to understand the basic biological mechanisms that trigger female reproductive senescence, from the earliest stages through to menopause, and ultimately leverage this understanding to intervene and balance the scales.  Contact info@gcrle.org for more information and to find out how to join the GCRLE today! https://buckinstitute.org/gcrle/

About the Buck Institute for Research on Aging

Our success will ultimately change healthcare. At the Buck, we aim to end the threat of age-related diseases for this and future generations by bringing together the most capable and passionate scientists from a broad range of disciplines to identify and impede the ways in which we age. An independent, nonprofit institution, our goal is to increase human health span, or the healthy years of life. Globally recognized as the pioneer and leader in efforts to target aging, the number one risk factor serious diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, macular degeneration, heart disease, and diabetes, the Buck wants to help people live better longer.  Learn more at: https://buckinstitute.org

About the Bia-Echo Foundation

Bia-Echo Foundation is a private foundation, founded by Nicole Shanahan that aims to accelerate social change in order to establish a fair and equitable society for future generations to thrive. We invest in changemakers at the forefront of innovation who are tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges within our core areas of equality-based investment:  Reproductive Longevity & Equality, Criminal Justice Reform and Healthy and Livable Ecosystems. https://www.biaecho.org

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/global-consortium-for-reproductive-longevity-equality-announces-first-grant-recipients/

Buck Institute’s Postdoc Nathan Basisty Wins a Prestigious Career-Boosting Award From the NIH

With both of his Buck mentors describing him as an “exceptional scientist” and a “generous and valuable collaborator,” postdoc Nate Basisty is poised to take a huge leap in his career, thanks to a prestigious and highly competitive Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Basisty, who played a crucial role in creating a publically-accessible database that can be used to develop clinically relevant, senescence-based biomarkers of aging, has been awarded $262,000 over two years to transition to his own independent lab.  Assuming his job search goes well, Basisty will also be cued up to apply for a major grant that would provide three years of additional funding for his research.

“I am super excited to get this grant,” said Basisty, who has been at the Buck for five years, and is mentored by faculty members Judith Campisi and Birgit Schilling along with Luigi Ferrucci, MD, the Scientific Director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging.  “Aging is such an important problem to tackle, and the Buck is the perfect place to do the work. I’m glad to be involved in projects that will translate our understanding of senescence into something that will help improve human health.”

The need for biomarkers

Senescent cells, which stop dividing under stress, are long-recognized drivers of multiple diseases of aging. Mouse studies have shown that targeted removal of these cells and the inflammatory factors they secrete, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), has beneficial results on multiple organ systems and functions.  Success in the laboratory has given rise to companies and research projects aimed at developing either senolytics, drugs that clear senescent cells, or senomorphics, drugs that suppress the SASP. But drug development and clinical utilization require simple, reliable biomarkers to assess the abundance of senescent cells in human tissues.

“I would sit in lab meetings where people would talk about various proteins and wonder if they were part of the SASP,” said Basisty.  “Then people would have to sift through all of these research papers to try to make sense of what was going on.  Developing the interactive database, which Birgit and I had been discussing, just made sense.”

Basisty was the lead author of a study published earlier this year in PLOS Biology which highlighted the establishment of the curated database.  The paper has been widely viewed and cited by researchers around the world.   Over 1,000 SASP proteins are currently included in the database.

The NIH award is also supporting Basisty’s efforts to identify and validate markers that sit on the surface of senescent cells. “These markers are really important,” he said. “We can potentially target them with therapeutics and we can also use the markers to identify and isolate senescent cells from human tissue.” Basisty says researchers currently lack the ability to remove and study cells that become senescent in a person – the only option is to artificially induce cellular senescence in cell culture. “Studying the ‘surfaceome’ is extremely valuable,” he said. “These markers could one day allow us to see how senolytic drugs work on senescent cells taken from actual human tissues.  That’s precision medicine.”

In praise of a promising researcher

The NIH award is targeted toward “highly motivated, advanced postdoctoral research scientists.” Basisty’s Buck mentors say, in this case, the NIH chose wisely: “Nate is an exceptional scientist — and person,” said Campisi, who is a pioneer in the study of cellular senescence.  “He not only has an outstanding grasp of the power and complexities of mass spectrometry, he also has an outstanding grasp of the biology.  This is a rare and valuable combination.”

Schilling, who directs the Institute’s Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core, acknowledges Basisty’s work on many high-profile projects that focus on the link between aging and disease.  “Nate is a generous person and is always helpful to anybody around him scientifically or personally.  His skill sets of deep biological knowledge, understanding of mass spectrometry and computer coding allow him to tackle projects comprehensively.”

Basisty was born in Ukraine and came to this country with his parents, who were engineers, when he was two.  Growing up in the greater Seattle area, he always showed an affinity for science. His original intent to become a physician was challenged when he started working in labs and fell in love with the scientific process.  “You get to choose the question to ask and choose the experiments to answer the question. Then you get to ask the next question and constantly nurture the project forward. Being a scientist is such a cool job.”

Basisty was still in pre-med when he attended a lecture about the conserved mechanisms of aging when he was getting his BS at the University of Washington in Seattle.  “I often wondered why and how people and animals aged – then I discovered that there was a field called geroscience that actually studied it.  I was hooked.  That lecture definitely factored into my decision to become a scientist.”

A lesson for all of us – don’t be afraid to ask

The NIH award requires Basisty to be mentored over the course of his grant award.  Campisi and Schilling were obvious choices – he works with them daily at the Buck.  Reaching out to the NIA’s Ferrucci, who runs The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, America’s longest-running scientific study of human aging, upped the ante, even though Ferrucci was already a co-author of the PLOS Biology study.  “Initially I was afraid to ask because everyone, including Dr. Ferrucci, who is a leader in his field, is clearly very busy. But once I did it, he was so friendly, enthusiastic and helpful.  There really is a desire to keep the science moving forward.”

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/buck-postdoc-nathan-basisty-wins-a-prestigious-career-boosting-award-from-the-nih/

The Buck Institute Mourns the Passing of Paul F. Glenn

Paul F. Glenn, a successful commodity trader whose philanthropy helped fuel many careers and subsequent discoveries in research on aging, died on September 29th, 2020, at the age of 89.  The Glenn Foundation has invested more than $100 million in the basic biology of aging at research institutes around the country.  There are Paul F. Glenn Centers for the Biology of Aging Research at the Buck Institute, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, the Salk Institute, the Mayo Clinic, Princeton, Einstein College of Medicine and the University of Michigan.

Glenn was one of the founding trustees of the Buck Institute, the first independent research institution in the world focused solely on the biology of aging. His fellow founding trustee, Dr. Jack Rowe, a former professor at Harvard Medical School who later served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, remembers Glenn for his keen intellect and, especially for a non-scientist, his deep understanding of geroscience. “Paul had an amazing capacity to recognize quality in research and talent in individuals, capabilities that surely helped him in his career as a successful commodities trader.”

An obituary posted on the Glenn Foundation website states that Glenn’s experience as an only grandson of aging grandparents formed the basics of his future philanthropic focus. Established in 1965, when many still dismissed research on aging as pseudoscience,  the organization’s mission is to extend the healthy years of life through research on the mechanisms of biology that govern normal human development and its related physiological decline, with the objective of translating research into interventions that will extend healthspan with lifespan. 

“Paul was a true champion of the basic research that brought our field into the mainstream,” said Eric Verdin, MD, President and CEO of the Buck Institute. “The fact that we are moving discoveries from the lab to the clinic can be traced, in many instances, back to his vision and generosity. We are grateful for his life and his support and will continue to work toward fulfilling the mission of his foundation.”

Glenn endowed his Foundation to carry on its mission in perpetuity.   He was born and raised in Sharon, Pennsylvania and was a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School.  He was the youngest member of the American Gerontological Society when he joined. Glenn also served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute on Aging, and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the American Aging Association and the American Federation for Aging Research.

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/the-buck-institute-mourns-the-passing-of-paul-f-glenn-a-major-champion-of-research-on-aging/

Buck Institute for Research on Aging Finds Bodybuilding Supplement Promotes Healthy Aging and Extends Life Span, at Least in Mice

A dietary supplement bodybuilders use to bulk up may have a more sweeping health benefit: Staving off the ravages of old age. Mice given the substance—alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG)—were healthier as they aged, and females lived longer than mice not on the supplement.

Other compounds, like the antiaging drug rapamycin and the diabetes treatment metformin, have shown similar effects in mouse experiments. But AKG is naturally made by mice and by our own bodies, and it is already considered safe to consume by regulators.

“The big thing about this is that its safety profile is so good,” says University of North Dakota aging researcher Holly Brown-Borg, who was not involved with the study. “It has potential and should be explored further, for sure.”

AKG is part of the metabolic cycle that our cells use to make energy from food. In addition to its use by bodybuilders, doctors sometimes treat osteoporosis and kidney disease with the supplement.

The molecule grabbed attention as a possible antiaging treatment in 2014, when researchers reported AKG could extend life span by more than 50% in tiny Caenorhabditis elegans worms. That’s on par with a low-calorie diet, which has been shown to promote healthy aging, but is hard for most people to stick with. Other groups later showed life span improvements from AKG in fruit flies.

In the new study, Gordon Lithgow and Brian Kennedy of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and colleagues turned to mammals. They gave groups of 18-month-old mice (about age 55 in human years) the equivalent of 2% of their daily chow as AKG until they died, or for up to 21 months. AKG levels in blood gradually drop with age, and the scientists’ aim was to restore levels to those seen in young animals.

Some differences jumped out within a few months: “They looked much blacker, shinier, and younger” than control mice, says Azar Asadi Shahmirzadi, a postdoc at the Buck Institute who did the experiments as a graduate student. In addition, the AKG-fed mice scored an average of more than 40% better on tests of “frailty,” as measured by 31 physiological attributes including hair color, hearing, walking gait, and grip strength. And female mice lived a median of 8% to 20% longer after AKG treatment began than control mice, the group reports today in Cell Metabolism.

The AKG-eating mice did not perform better on tests of heart function or treadmill endurance, however, and the tests did not include cognitive performance.

Probing the mechanism for these improvements, the researchers found that female mice receiving AKG produced higher levels of a molecule that tamps down on inflammation. Chronic inflammation can spur many diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and dementia.

The effects on life span and health were smaller for AKG than for some other antiaging compounds, notes aging researcher Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington, Seattle, who was not involved with the work. But some of those compounds have run into safety issues—for example, rapamycin suppresses the immune system and may promote diabetes.

Kennedy, now also at the National University of Singapore, plans to test AKG in human volunteers soon. Looking at a group of people between the ages of 45 and 65, his group will see whether the molecule improves aging-related biomarkers such as inflammation, arterial hardening, and a type of chemical signature on DNA associated with aging. The company Ponce de Leon Health, where Kennedy serves as chief scientific officer (and Gordon and other paper authors have stock), is running a similar study at Indiana University.

Ponce de Leon Health already sells a formulation of AKG called Rejuvant that it says can “slow the aging process.” Kennedy defends these claims. “We are upfront about the data that we have and do not yet have on the website,” he says. And Brown-Borg notes the Buck Institute team isn’t the first group of aging-focused researchers to start a company to develop an antiaging treatment, an idea she hopes will eventually pan out in clinical trials. “It’s an exciting time in the field,” she says.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/bodybuilding-supplement-promotes-healthy-aging-and-extends-life-span-least-mice

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging Highlighted in Making Up for Lost Time: Biomedical Research and Female Subjects

After the end of the Second World War, thalidomide was introduced in Europe as a safe and effective new sedative, an alternative to the highly addictive barbiturates that had been rising in use since the tail end of conflict. It was soon marketed for scores of other uses, from anxiety to the common cold. Handed out like candy to doctors and available without a prescription, thalidomide quickly made its way into households across the globe, including the United States. Its most notorious off-label use, though, was as a treatment for morning sickness. At the time, little was understood about how drugs passed from patient to fetus. When tens of thousands of babies were subsequently born with severe developmental anomalies, the FDA made a sweeping judgment call that would profoundly affect female reproductive health for decades. Instead of investing research effort into drug safety during pregnancy, it opted to simply exclude all women of “child-bearing potential” from early clinical trials.

Almost half a century later, we still lack adequate data on female subjects, and it’s a problem that reaches beyond the clinic and back to the research labs, where promising new treatments are discovered and developed in animal models. Guidelines handed down by organizations that fund basic research, such as the NIH and FDA, are slowly catching up to this need for experimental equity. New research initiatives are also starting to bridge this gap—such as the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where efforts are underway to look beyond “child-bearing potential” in order to understand how changes in female reproductive physiology affect health across the whole lifespan.

Before a drug makes it to clinical trials, its biochemical properties are first studied in animal models such as mice and rats. Even at this early stage, sample bias toward male subjects has been just as pernicious as it is in the clinic. After a few experiments conducted in the early 1960s and 1970s suggested that data collected from female rodents might be unreliable due to cyclical fluctuations in estrogen, researchers tended to avoid the headache of an extra variable and used only male animals in experiments. Dozens of independent studies done over the past decade, however, have revealed no such variability due to the estrous cycle.

One major problem in biomedical research is not just that these studies are conducted in unfairly biased ways, but that many aspects of female reproductive health simply aren’t studied in the first place. Dr. Judith Campisi, a professor at the Buck Institute who studies the basic cellular mechanisms of aging, explains that the reasons why male fertility persists throughout the lifespan while female reproductive capacity ends in middle age remain unclear to scientists. “Menopause is quite rare among mammals,” Dr. Campisi says in an interview for Lady Science. A gradual lifelong decrease in fertility is common in many species, she notes, “but this precipitous loss of reproductive ability is peculiar to humans.” A fundamental goal that unifies the work of the different labs who make up the consortium is to understand the basic molecular and chemical drivers of this difference.

Berenice Benayoun and her team at the University of Southern California are working to take some of the mystery out of this basic biological question. Her lab is developing mouse models of menopause, which until now have mostly been studied by removing the ovaries from mice who are 2-3 months old—the equivalent, Dr. Benayoun says, of throwing a 15-year-old human directly into menopause with none of the gradual hormonal shifts normally experienced by older women. By using models that more closely approximate human timelines and transitions, her work will pave the way for more thorough investigations of the basics of female physiology throughout the lifespan, beyond the mechanics of pregnancy and childbirth.

“There’s always been a lot of interest in trying to rescue the fertility or preserve the fertility of women who are undergoing premature ovarian failures,” Dr. Benayoun explains, speaking to Lady Science. “The ovary does a lot of things that are not related to reproduction.”

Work by Dr. Benayoun and others has revealed cyclical changes in immune function that correlate to estrogen levels, and links estrogen to susceptibility for Alzheimer’s disease and a variety of other age-related pathologies. Estrogen-dependent variations in the biochemical processes involved in these diseases can lead to variations in drug metabolism, which can translate to major differences in how a patient responds to a drug, how much of it is needed to be of any therapeutic value, and the potential toxicity of these compounds.

While intended to prevent unforeseen effects on prenatal development, the FDA’s guidance in response to the thalidomide crisis stymied progress on drug development for diseases that affect women in greater numbers than men. This response also failed to account for potential sex differences in adverse side effects. Several common sleeping medications were prescribed in equal doses to men and women, until women began reporting a higher incidence of serious cognitive side effects. Studies revealed differences between male and female patients in the rate certain sleep drugs clear the blood, prompting the FDA to adjust their dosage suggestions. Doctor Benayoun says she sees differences like these regularly when her lab compares the effects of common anti-aging interventions in either male or female mice. “Most of what works does not work the same in females and males,” she points out.

Because sex differences have been viewed in research for so long as an experimental confound rather than a critical area of further study, we’ve lost valuable insight into how these fundamental differences work. From the exclusion of women from clinical trials over concerns for the health of their fetuses, to the dearth of research into what happens after fertility declines, the inseparability of female physiology from fertility in the minds of clinicians and basic researchers has limited women’s health. “There’s so much we still don’t know,” says Dr. Benayoun, “that we can’t estimate how much we’ve lost.” But as her lab and others like it begin to expand our basic knowledge of this field, the research climate has begun to shift—and the attitude and approach of the larger medical community will shift with it.

https://www.ladyscience.com/ideas/making-up-for-lost-time-biomedical-research 

North Bay Business Journal Names Kostecka as New Publisher

The North Bay Business Journal has named Norma Kostecka as publisher, succeeding Brad Bollinger, who will retire Dec. 31.

Kostecka begins her new role on Monday, Oct. 26.

She joins NBBJ after serving as advertising director for 22 years at the Napa Valley Register, where she was responsible for sales, promotional and strategic functions of the advertising and marketing departments.

Prior to the Napa Valley Register, she served as retail advertising manager for the Arizona Daily Sun. Kostecka started her career in publishing in 1984 as an automotive sales representative at The Times Advocate in Escondido in San Diego County, where she is originally from.

Kostecka said she initially planned to become a retail buyer in the fashion industry. But after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles, she and her husband, Scott, decided to move back to Escondido. Once there, she joined The Times Advocate and never looked back.

Joining NBBJ is something Kostecka said she’s excited about, even in these challenging times for business that began in mid-March with shelter-in-place and other restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19, triggering an economic downturn that includes the publishing industry.

“The pandemic is a tragedy and it’s certainly a step back for our businesses,” she said. “But if we’re playing our cards right and if we’re taking advantage of the down time, we have an opportunity here to come back stronger … so that when everyone starts opening up again, we will be ready for all that.”

Steve Falk, CEO of Sonoma Media Investments, which publishes the Business Journal, as well as The Press Democrat and other publications, said after searching long and hard over the last year for the right person to take on the role of publisher at the Business Journal, Kostecka “checked all of our boxes.”

“She brings an innovative mindset, extensive experience in the media business and a passion for helping our North Bay business community succeed. Her track record is outstanding in leading both digital and print efforts at the Napa Valley Register as director of advertising for nearly two decades,” Falk said. “Familiar with our North Bay communities, she will be deeply focused on enriching the business-to-business value the Business Journal provides and to carry on Brad Bollinger’s legacy of leadership and commitment.”

Kostecka said she’s already identified one of her top priorities.

“Sales is probably going to be where the immediate change will be and that’s because of the effect the pandemic has had on our business, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to come in and change everything,” she said. “It’s more so that if there’s one department in the publishing business right now that has been affected, it would be on the sales side.”

In addition to publishing a weekly newspaper and operating an active website, the Journal stages a number of events throughout the year, including conferences on business topics and recognizing area business leaders with awards programs. Kostecka noted how impressed she is that NBBJ was able to successfully pivot from staging live events to doing so on a virtual platform like Zoom, a move led by Bollinger and his sales and marketing team.

“Norma is an experienced and energetic leader,” said Bollinger, who has worked in the newspaper industry for more than 44 years. He started at The Press Democrat in March 1984, then moved over to the Business Journal in 2005, where he served as editor until 2007, when he transitioned to associate publisher, then publisher in 2012. “She brings a deep media skill set with which to lead the Journal into the future.”

Kostecka and her husband have two grown children, Ryan and Megan. She has backpacked the Grand Canyon twice and is an avid jogger, having run five half-marathons.

Business Journal names new publisher

North Bay Business Journal Publisher Brad Bollinger to Retire in 2021

One of Brad Bollinger’s biggest pleasures is to go out to lunch or meet with businesspeople and hear what’s going on in their company and their industry. He comes away with a new understanding of the issues that these individuals face, and the implications for the rest of the economic ecosystem.

It is the kind of engagement Bollinger will miss most when he retires as North Bay Business Journal publisher at the end of December.

Coming from The Press Democrat in 2005, his approach to taking over as Business Journal editor was “don’t fix what isn’t broken.” He credits Business Journal founders Ken Clark and Randy Sloan with “building a great publication. My role at the time was to elevate the editorial product.”

With the two newspapers under ownership of The New York Times Company at the time, Bollinger transitioned from editor to associate publisher in 2007, and then to publisher five years later.

“Under Brad’s leadership, the North Bay Business Journal has become the go-to source for thousands of North Bay executives for relevant and timely business news and information,” says Steve Falk, CEO of Sonoma Media Investments, a group of local businesspeople who acquired The Press Democrat, Business Journal and other publications from the Times in 2012. “Brad has also grown NBBJ events every year — currently they number more than two dozen — as a place for business leaders to convene for important discussions and to recognize and celebrate business success.”

Bollinger responds that Falk has been a great supporter.

“There aren’t many media companies in the United States that have a business journal as part of their portfolio. As a locally owned company, we have managed to completely outperform the industry in many, many measures, and not just in profitability,” Bollinger says. “Our newsroom has been kept intact, and we have been allowed to do what we are supposed to do, which is keep the community informed. When there is a problem, an issue, a fire, an earthquake, whatever it is, the radio stations and the newspapers are the source and the glue that holds the community together.”

Local, local, local might be Bollinger’s mantra.

“I can get a story about Hurricane Sally somewhere, but I can’t get my local news anywhere else except from North Bay journalists,” he says. “Many communities have lost their hometown newspapers and have become news deserts, as they are called. We’ve been fortunate here.”

Asked if there had been a “golden age” for newspapers in Sonoma County, Bollinger replies, “Right now!” He cites the Pulitzer Prize that The Press Democrat newsroom won in 2018 for coverage of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.

Bollinger believes the area has been lucky all along with the ownership of its publications, noting especially the period after The New York Times purchased The Press Democrat in 1985.

“The Times invested a lot of money that we are benefitting from to this day,” he says, “including their journalism fund, which supported the ‘Global Shift’ series I worked on.” Bollinger was lead editor and creator of the four-day investigation on the local impacts of economic globalization, which ran in September 2004.

The NYT journalism fund was then and is now a philanthropic arm of the organization that searches for nonprofit funding to expand the reach of their journalism. “Global Shift” won the prestigious Polk Award, as well as The New York Times companywide Punch Award. “That probably would never have happened without the Times as an owner,” Bollinger says.

He considers the late Mike Parman (who was Press Democrat editor at the time of the Times Company purchase) one of his mentors and the person who had the biggest influence on his career. “Basically, Mike gave me opportunities that may have passed me by. And when the Business Journal editorship came up, he helped me transition over. Mike had an enormous personal and professional impact.”

Personal newspaper legacy

Bollinger was born in Santa Rosa on Sept. 5, 1952, and lived there as a child until his family moved to Baker, Oregon, where his father was editor and publisher of a 5,000-circulation daily newspaper.

The family returned to Santa Rosa when Bollinger was a teen. After high school, he considered the medical field (“I don’t know why, I wasn’t that good in science classes.”) but while attending Santa Rosa Junior College, he went to work at the Oak Leaf. “I was about 18 when I took news writing as an elective and my interest continued on from there.”

His first job after graduating from San Jose State in 1974 was at a semiweekly in Crescent City, the Del Norte Triplicate. He then took a position at the Chico Enterprise Record, a daily newspaper.

“Thus my editorial trajectory began with a desire for a little more cash,” he says.

While he labored by day as a reporter and fledgling editor, Bollinger taught a night class in public relations at Chico State. Finding adjunct teaching a pleasure, he subsequently became a full-time faculty lecturer and concurrently finished his master’s degree in communications.

But after three years in the academic setting, the lure of journalism became too attractive and in March 1984, Bollinger found himself back at his hometown paper.

He tells two stories from his early years at The Press Democrat. During his college internship, he was sent to review a play; instead of using the real names of the actors in each role, he used the names of their characters. “Obviously, my opinion of whether the play was good or bad was of no value after that.”

The second incident is from the era when the late Art Volkerts was editor (Volkerts retired in 1986).

“You always have to write obituaries when you’re a journalist just starting out,” Bollinger recalls. “I had turned in my obit to Art, and he shouted to me from across the room — he was probably 50 feet away — ‘Bollinger, cemetery is spelled -ery not –ary.’ And I never forgot it.”

The Bollinger family has been connected to The Press Democrat for three generations.

Lee Bollinger was the classified ad manager when his son was an intern. (“Those were the days before Craig’s List,” Bollinger notes.) Many years before, Lee had worked as a flyboy — the apprentice who caught stacks of newspapers as they “flew” off the presses. Brad’s grandmother was in charge of “the morgue,” where newspaper clippings were stored. In addition, three of Brad’s siblings worked at the PD at various times.

“Dad retired from the PD around 1990; he’s 95 now and still strong. My son, Jacob, lives in Orinda and works in the tech field,” he says. “So you might say my retirement is the end of our newspaper legacy.”

Catherine Barnett, The Press Democrat’s executive editor, makes the same observation about the culmination of the Bollinger family PD legacy.

“I remember Lee Bollinger, who was a consummate gentleman, taking time to talk in-depth to a lowly intern the first summer I worked here during college more than 40 years ago,” she says. “Brad is a lot like his father — he values civility and is courteous and thoughtful.”

A business-to-business essential

Bollnger explains that the Business Journal fills a niche that the regular consumer daily paper does not.

It starts with providing a news operation, and then builds into business-to-business connections facilitated by a variety of public events.

“This community has done well because the people like living here, and they want to hear about what’s going on, and to contribute. After a tragedy like the fires, they want to bring leaders together and examine what they are doing, what they promised to do,” Bollinger says. “By growing as both a B-to-B publication and an event business, the Business Journal has a greater penetration into the market and provides a greater service.”

The focus of an event might be making contacts, presenting awards, or exploring in-depth an issue in a particular county — for example, the Impact Napa series titled “Connecting with Consumers in the Age of Covid.” A conference might also focus on a particular industry, like wine or construction.

The Business Journal also produces about a dozen awards and recognition programs, including Best Places to Work, Latino Business Leadership and Women in Business Awards.

Bollinger is typically the emcee at NBBJ events and is responsible for driving event content and moderating panels. For him, it’s all about fulfilling the mission to bring people together and hone in on what is happening in the community at the current moment.

Bollinger jokes that people are probably tired of seeing him behind the podium, although he seems to be a natural at hosting. Blair Kellison of Traditional Medicinals, who refers to Bollinger as “the real deal,” says this: “I will never walk into the lobby of the Santa Rosa Hyatt and not think of Brad in one of the conference rooms with a microphone in his hand.”

Once the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a shutdown of large, in-person gatherings, the Business Journal staff shifted to orchestrating virtual events. By the beginning of October, they had produced 10 on Zoom. Bollinger notes that two recent online events had over 800 and 600 attendees each.

“Guest speakers can appear from all over, saving the expense of flights and accommodations,” he says. “The current circumstances have actually extended our reach, rather than narrowed it.”

Along with an expanded schedule of events and its weekly business reporting, the Business Journal has since 1990 published an annual Book of Lists, a reference guide containing information about North Bay businesses in about 80 categories.

“Everybody thought it would go away, but you lend your Book of Lists to somebody and you never get it back!” Bollinger says of the annual publications, which is based on the same model as other national business journals.

Response to calamity

Fires, pandemic, store closures, unemployment, and fires again — Bollinger wonders how much more California can take.

For him, the response of business leaders after the 2017 Tubbs fire was “nothing short of miraculous.”

The global companies located in the county — he used Keysight Technologies as an example — contacted every employee to find out was what going on and continued to pay people.

“Workplaces became the default home for many. The CEO of a FEMA contractor told me she had never seen a community respond like Sonoma County did to the fires,” Bollinger says. “And that includes the amount of philanthropy that went on at that time, and still goes on.”

During COVID-19, business leaders have responded in the same compassionate way. Those companies with employees who are able to work remotely have facilitated that.

“However,” Bollinger admits, “if you’re in hospitality or tourism, the pandemic shutdown has been very difficult. I think on the whole, companies here have responded by taking care of people. Those most impacted have been in lower wage industries — and I’ve said this publicly — we have to make sure that they are supported. A lot of the big restaurant names have developed funds to help their people.”

Calling himself “a very positive person,” he continues to draw attention to the community-oriented perspective of local employers in the face of the recent string of calamities.

Time for a new chapter

The Spanish word for retirement is “jubilación.” Bollinger likes to refer to his “next chapter.” He and his wife, Corine, had come to this major decision a couple of years ago and have been planning for it.

“After over 44 years as a journalist, editor and publisher, I’m ready to let someone else come in to do what they can to help the Business Journal grow. It’s time for me to try something new,” he says.

That “something new” is embarking on studies for a master’s degree in theology from the Augustine Institute in Denver. Starting Jan. 11, Bollinger will be a remote student.

“I’ve been looking at this for a long time, wanting to explore something significant and different,” Bollinger says. “There are a lot of writers and critics who have studied theology in their later years, like C.S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterson. Not that I’m on their level, but in taking this direction, I’m in good company.”

Bollinger plans to start slowly with one or two classes, and then ramp up with enough units to be finished in spring 2023. “Assuming I don’t flunk out,” he says, “it will be an adventure and a journey, but still a little scary, to be quite honest. I haven’t taken a test in 40 years!”

Bollinger feels blessed and grateful to have been a member of the journalism community for so long. In looking back, he has few regrets. “I’ve probably made a lot of dumb mistakes,” Bollinger pauses, “but nothing that was of serious injury.”

“Folks have been saying to me, ‘Don’t disappear.’ All I can answer is: everything is just opening up. There are some endings and there are some beginnings.”

North Bay Business Journal Publisher Brad Bollinger to retire in 2021

Bank of America Issues 2020 Human Capital Management Report

Bank of America today published its 2020 Human Capital Management Report, which provides the latest information and progress against its continued focus to be a great place to work for its more than 200,000 teammates around the world.

Building on the company’s inaugural Human Capital Management report last year, the 2020 report details the many programs and resources, as well as supporting data, across Bank of America’s primary focus areas including: being a diverse and inclusive workplace; attracting and retaining exceptional talent; providing holistic benefits supporting teammates’ physical, emotional and financial wellness; and recognizing and rewarding performance.

“Since our initial report, we have taken extensive steps to care for the health and safety of our teammates during the unprecedented health crisis, including expanding and enhancing employee benefits and resources,” said CEO Brian Moynihan. “We have also built on work we have had underway throughout our company’s history to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace, and have seen increases in diverse representation in nearly every area.”

In addition, Bank of America continues to share metrics on diverse representation across the company, a practice the bank has had in place for many years prior to last year’s inaugural report. Specific highlights of what’s new this year include:

  • Additional disclosures related to Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino representation throughout the report.
  • Increases in the representation of women and people of color in nearly every category across the company since 2018 (the exception being women in the top three levels of our company, which remains at 41%).
  • One of the most diverse classes of campus new hires ever – 45% women, 13% Black/African American and 14% Hispanic/Latino.
  • Progress in lines of business, including wealth management, which has seen increases in the percentage of women, people of color, Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino employees.

“Our focus on being a great place to work has never been more important. While our teammates are focused on supporting our clients and communities, we’re focused on supporting them and their families, making sure they can be their best both at work and at home,” said Chief Human Resources Officer Sheri Bronstein.

New to this year’s report, Bank of America has detailed expanded support and benefits to help employees navigate the ongoing health crisis, and long-term commitments to advance racial equality and economic opportunity for all, including:

  • Supporting employee health and safety, including providing no-cost coronavirus testing; no-cost virtual general medicine and behavioral health consults; mental health resources; and additional support for teammates who continue to work in the office, such as transportation and meal subsidies.
  • Launching innovative solutions to support teammates with child care needs, including providing over 1.7 million days of backup child and adult care and an investment of over $200 million in child and adult care reimbursements through September 2020.
  • Delivering for our clients by providing advice, guidance and access to all our capabilities to help clients meet their financial needs, as well as by delivering critical financial relief.
  • Helping our teammates to have conversations about racial, social and economic injustices, with more than 165,000 employees participating in courageous conversations in the first half of the year alone.
  • Making a four-year, $1 billion commitment to advance work underway to address critical issues for people and communities of color, including health care, jobs, small businesses and housing.

These highlights are in addition to the actions Bank of America takes each year, including equal pay for equal work; support for new parents; personalized support for major life events (including connecting employees to resources, benefits and counseling) from Life Events Services, the company’s internal, highly-specialized group; and confidential counseling through its Employee Assistance Program to help manage the stress and broader emotional impacts of events and uncertainty.

Learn more about our progress in the full report.