Research & Development Core
Core Leader: Ron Korstanje
Phone: 207-288-6992
Email: ron.korstanje@jax.org
The overall goal of JAX NSC Research Development Core is to provide support for career development of junior faculty entering the field of basic aging biology or other investigators who wish to change career direction towards basic aging research.
We provide targeted funding to exciting projects proposed by investigators new to aging research, and by offering a variety of research and intellectual resources to support awardees and other aging investigators in their work. The outstanding institutional resources available at JAX, a premier institution for mouse genetics and systems biology research, is leveraged to sustain and grow this foundation of researchers at JAX and within the aging community.
Our primary mechanism is the Pilot Award Program where promising investigators new to aging research will be funded through a competitive process so they can generate the data and gain the expertise necessary to support competitive funding applications and a transition to a career in aging biology.
Since 2017, we have offered an in-kind program where the awardee envisions the study, but we perform the experiments for the awardee, collecting data and/or tissues. The awardee then uses these data and tissues for further analysis at his/her own institute. Using this innovative format, we can perform many more experiments for a larger number of investigators within the same budget.
Number of pilot projects performed since 2017. As the size of the experiments (number of animals) has been going up in the last few years, the number of projects we have been able to perform has slightly decreased.
| Year | External Investigators | JAX Investigators | Total |
| 2017 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 2018 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| 2019 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| 2020 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 2021 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 2022 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 2023 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
2023 Pilot Project Awardees
Xu Zhang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Preclinical testing of a senolytic drug
Ryo Higuchi-Sanabria, Ph.D., St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
More than a loading control: form and function of actin during aging
Katherine Wert, Ph.D., St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Understanding Human Retinal Development and Cellular Changes during Disease
Jason Vevea, Ph.D., St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Investigating the normal age and sex dependent molecular changes of synaptic vesicles (SVs) and post-synaptic densities (PSDs) from brains of male, female, and female mice that mimic menopause
Denis Mogilenko, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
Understanding dendritic cells as a driver of immune dysfunction in aging
Julia Oh, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
Microbial modulation of aging associated kidney acidosis
2022 Pilot Project Awardees
Xu Zhang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Preclinical testing of a senolytic drug to counter skeletal muscle aging
Michael Lustgarten, Ph.D., USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging
Impact of a high-soluble fiber diet on the gut-muscle axis in aged mice
Sarah Mitchell, Ph.D., ETH Zürich / Healthy Aging Laboratory
Cintia De Paiva, Ph.D., M.D., Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Investigating sex-differences in the Lacrimal Gland Immune Infiltrates in Aged Diversity Outbred Mice
Brittany Angerola, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
Transcriptomic and cellular programs during aging and in breast cancer
Liisa Kuhn, Ph.D., University of Connecticut Health Center
Quantifying Senescence in Mouse Mandibles
George Sutphin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Arizona
Evaluate the efficacy of 3HAA at extending healthy lifespan in mice (expansion).
2021 Pilot Project Awardees
Justin Crane, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Northeastern University
Determining the efficacy of 4-PBA to reverse age-related muscle frailty
Cintia De Paiva, Ph.D., M.D., Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
The Effect of Senescence on the Aged Lacrimal Gland and Heart
Karyn Frick, Ph.D., Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Effects of age, sex, and estradiol treatment on memory and affective function
Chiara Rolando, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Milan
Investigate alterations in α-Synucleindistribution and α-Synuclein-tubulin interaction in different types of synaptic terminals during aging.
Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D. Associate Professor, The Jackson Laboratory
Evaluating age-associated clonal hematopoiesis in bone marrow
Amy Wagers, Ph.D., Professor, Harvard Medical School
Cisd2 gene transfer as a potential rejuvenation therapy in aged mice
Ashley Webb, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Brown University
Investigate how genetic diversity affects the decline in neurogenesis in healthy aging
2020 Pilot Project Awardees
Erik Bloss, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, The Jackson Laboratory
Investigate the neuroanatomical targets for subsequent genetic or molecular manipulations aimed at arresting or reversing aging-related cognitive decline
Kataryzna Cieslik, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Examine the proteome changes in the young and aged cardiac fibroblasts
George Sutphin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Arizona
Evaluate the efficacy of 3HAA at extending healthy lifespan in mice.
Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D. Associate Professor, The Jackson Laboratory
Aim 1: Test the hypothesis that there is a negative correlation between myeloid-biased hematopoiesis and estrogen levels in middle-aged female mice.
Aim2: Test the hypothesis that restoring estrogen in middle-aged female mice rejuvenates lineage-balanced hematopoiesis
Christopher Wiley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Buck Institute for Research on Aging
In vivo assessment of a polyunsaturated fatty acid that kills senescent cells
2019 Pilot Project Awardees
Scott Leiser, Ph.D., University of Michigan
Determine the effect of mianserin supplementation at mid-life on aging
Chia Shan Wu, Ph.D., Texas A&M
Effects of dietary soluble fiber supplementation on fecal microbiome and metabolome in aging mice
Rupa Sridharan, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Determining the epigenetic determinants of cellular aging
Melissa Duncan, Ph.D., University of Delaware
Validate RNA seq results comparing the response of aged and young mice to cataract surgery
Vivek Kumar, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
Video Analysis of gait in aged mice
David Baglietto-Vargas, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Age-associated changes in the white adipose cells
Cintia de Paiva, M.D., Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Identifying Age-Related Changes in Molecular Signatures in Aged T Regulatory Cells
Katherine Aird, Ph.D., Penn State
Investigating the Aging Micro environment on Ovarian Cancer Biology
Chung-Ping Liao, Ph.D., UT Southwestern
The mechanism of aging-induced hair graying and hair loss in mammals
2018 Pilot Project Awardees
Danitza Nebor, Ph.D. The Jackson Laboratory
Investigate whether decreasing of mTORC1 activity would increase the expression of the mouse bh1
Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D. University of Washington
Examine and compare the effects of in-chow of 42mg/kg/day of rapamycin (42 ppm eRAPA) for 8 weeks (~2 months) on age-associated periodontal disease in wild-type C57BL/6 mice at 20 months of age.
Steven Gygi, Ph.D., Harvard University
The aged mouse proteome
Margarita Meer, Ph.D., Harvard University
Development of a blood-based DNA methylation clock in mice
Berenice Benayoun, Ph.D., University of Southern California
Sex dimorphism in aging macrophages
Danielle Bruns Ph.D./Emily Schmitt, Ph.D., University of Wyoming
Linking Cardiac Aging with Biological Clock Activity
Aby Buchwalter, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco
Quantify nucleor size as a proxy for nucleolar activity over age in tissue sections at 6, 12 and 18 months
Shohana Yakar, Ph.D. NYU
Test the effect of Methylene Blue on bone quality during Aging
Samual Beck, Ph.D., Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
CpG islands and chromatin architecture changes during aging
Giovanni Mann, Ph.D., King’s College London
Impact of ageing on endothelial cell trafficking of intermediate conductance Ca2+ activated potassium channels
2017 Pilot Project Awardees
Muneer Hasham, Ph.D.,The Jackson Laboratory
Determining the genetic variations that impact the age-related B-cell immune response.
Duygu Ucar, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
Epigenomic disruption of immune cell functions with aging in CC founder strains
Catherine Kaczorowski, Ph.D.,The Jackson Laboratory
Systems Genetics of Normal Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Ewelina Bolcun-filas, Ph.D.,The Jackson Laboratory
Genetics and Genomics of the Ovarian Reserve and Female Fertility
Olga Anczukow, Ph.D.,The Jackson Laboratory
Identifying age-related changes in splicing regulation in the mammary gland
John Fryer, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Use single-cell RNAseq technology to determine the cellular response in all cell types in the aging brain.
2015/2016 Pilot Project Awardees
Brett Kaufman, Ph.D., University of Pittsburg
Genetic Control of Mitochondrial DNA content with Aging
Gareth Howell, Ph.D., The Jackson Laboratory
Investigating the role of APOE in age-related neurovascular unit decline and neuroinflammation.