PROJECT SUMMARY
One of the most enduring questions in public health is why some individuals retain good health into old age
while others experience declines in health, physical function, and wellbeing. Growing evidence indicates that
socio-environmental factors can contribute to individual differences in the progression of ‘biological aging’, yet
we lack a clear understanding of how they influence different body systems. Although these questions have
been difficult to address in humans, wild populations of primates offer unique opportunities for progress.
This project’s overarching objective is to generate new insights into how social and physical environments
influence heterogeneity in rates of aging and health disparities. We will accomplish this by developing a new
model system for the study of biological aging, using a combination of field-based behavioral observation and
laboratory analyses of noninvasive biological samples from wild white-faced capuchins. Our long-term
longitudinal study of this species allows us to leverage almost 40 years of granular data on life-histories,
pedigrees, and social behavior, as well as a rich assortment of associated data on the physical environment.
The traits that capuchins share with humans, including complex social relationships, omnivory, large brains,
and extended longevity, make them well-situated to provide insights into aging and health in our own species.
Our first Aim for the Development Phase is to identify, validate, and characterize biomarkers of aging and
health in physiological and molecular domains from non-invasive biological samples in a cross-section of adult
capuchins of known ages (6-27 years). We have been at the forefront of developing cutting-edge techniques
for noninvasive biological sampling, through which we will expand the set of wild animal models in which
biological aging can be studied. Second, we will develop new behavioral assessments of physical function that
are analogs of common geriatric assessments, and quantify aspects of social adversity parallel to those linked
to poor health, reduced survival, or accelerated biological aging in humans. In the Implementation Phase, our
Aim is to test the contributions of social and physical environments to trajectories of health and aging across
the life course, including sex differences in these relationships. To accomplish this, we will analyze longitudinal
variation in the biomarkers and health assessments that we establish during the Development Phase, in
combination with our long-term contextual data.
By the study’s conclusion, we will have established an innovative wild animal model of health and aging, with
newly developed biomarkers to track aging processes in an exceptional breadth of different body systems and
extended phenotypes. By integrating these new measures with our outstanding long-term data, we will shed
new light on potential mechanisms that explain individual differences in the progression of aging, and in doing
so, take an important step toward understanding how to extend the years of active, healthy life in humans.
