Kevin Beier receives New Investigator Award in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research

Kevin Beier, PhD, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, has been selected to receive a Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and the Hevolution Foundation. The three-year, $375,000 grant will support Beier’s research that explores if aging-related neuropathologies spread through neuronal synapses. The grant program, now with a second cohort of 18 investigators, is designed to enable early career investigators to advance research projects in the basic biology of aging and geroscience — a research paradigm based on addressing the biology of aging and age-related diseases to promote healthy aging.

"The Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience are a vital catalyst to support … early career scientists, whose work is essential for pioneering new pathways to extend healthspan," said Felipe Sierra, PhD, chief science officer of Hevolution Foundation.

Funding from this award will support Beier’s efforts to investigate the biological basis by which aging-related neuropathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease and molecular features of cellular senescence, transmit from cell to cell in the brain.

"Through our research, we aim to provide a mechanistic framework that explains how disease processes spread throughout the brain," Beier said. "If our hypotheses are correct, it will have significant implications for drug development efforts, and provide the potential to slow a wide variety of aging-related disease processes, including but not limited to Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease."

Now in its second year, AFAR and Hevolution Foundation launched the New Investigator Awards in 2022 as a pilot initiative to support research projects in the basic biology of aging and geroscience. In its inaugural cycle,18 awards were granted. In 2023, Hevolution expanded this program with an additional commitment of $16 million, which will provide support for up to 36 investigators in Northern America in 2023 and 2024.