ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Intra- and Intercellular Mechanisms of Aging,
organized by Drs. Malene Hansen, Johan Auwerx and Heinrich Jasper. The conference will be held in
Vancouver, Canada from February 9-13, 2020.
Over the past three decades, studies have highlighted numerous cell-autonomous mechanisms that contribute
to organismal aging. Specifically, changes in many genes, pathways, biomolecules and organelles have been
shown to affect aging in a number of model organisms in a conserved fashion. However, it has become
increasingly clear that these intracellular mechanisms are complemented by cell non-autonomous signaling
events to influence aging on a tissue and organismal level. Understanding how an initial deregulation of
intracellular functions are likely communicated to other cells, tissues, or organs to thereby impact the lifespan
and healthspan of the organism will be key to our understanding of aging and age-related diseases. This
conference will focus on intra- and intercellular mechanisms of aging, by highlighting current research on key
cell-autonomous mechanisms such as DNA, protein and mitochondrial homeostasis, as well as inter-tissue
signaling events relevant to aging and age-related diseases, in particular neurodegenerative disorders.