URochester researchers awarded up to $22M to study a hidden driver of aging

What if people could stay healthier, stronger, and mentally sharper as they grow older—not by treating diseases one by one but by slowing a biological process that drives aging itself? A new University of Rochester–led research effort will test whether a drug originally developed to treat HIV can quiet a chronic immune response triggered by the body’s own DNA, to help preserve overall health and function later in life.

The project is supported by a contract of up to $22 million over five years from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a federal agency created to support high-impact biomedical projects that could lead to transformative advances in health. Its highly competitive awards are designed to accelerate bold ideas that, if successful, could reshape how medicine approaches major health challenges. The URochester team is one of several selected by the agency’s PROactive Solutions for Prolonging Resilience (PROSPR) program.

The URochester effort is led by Vera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry Professor in the Department of Biology and currently codirector of the Rochester Aging Research (RoAR) Center and the Upstate NY Comparative Biology of Aging Nathan Shock Center, and brings together URochester researchers Andrei Seluanov from the River Campus, Kathi Heffner from the School of Nursing and codirector of the University’s Resilience Research Center, and Annette Medina-Walpole from the Medical Center, along with collaborators from Brown University, University of Connecticut, The University of Texas Medical Branch, University of Texas Health Houston, University of Nebraska, and Transposon Therapeutics.

“Aging underlies many chronic diseases, but it’s rarely targeted directly,” Gorbunova says. “This project builds on the University of Rochester’s long-standing leadership in aging research and gives us a unique opportunity to partner with other leading institutions to address one of the root causes of age-related decline.”

Read the full announcement on the University News Center.