Translational Research on Aging and Chronic Disease Laboratory

Check this out! The New York Times is talking about us!

They published an article about work done in our lab over the past couple of years talking about how a popular diabetes drugs might prevent the health benefits you get from exercise.

We're super proud of this work and we are immensely grateful for all the hard work and support from everyone in our lab, our collaborators, and clinical trials management team in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University.

Most importantly, a major thank you to all the members in our community who participated in this study. Without you, none of this could have been done!!

An Anti-Aging Pill? Think Twice The diabetes drug metformin, sometimes taken to slow aging, may blunt the health benefits of exercise.

The month of May flew by! A belated congratulations to Tommy Kail who graduated a couple weeks ago! Tommy has been an indispensable member of the TRACD lab for several years. We are so bummed to see him go, but we are so thankful his dedicated efforts these past years and are excited for what lies ahead of him. Congrats Tommy!!

As the academic year comes to a close, we realized we've forgotten to acknowledge our masters student Maureen Walsh's successful thesis proposal a couple weeks ago!

Her project involves investigating the influence of inflammation in the progression of sarcopenia and whether we can prevent that by improving mitochondrial function. This is partially funded through the grant she was award by the Rocky Mountain ACSM!!

Congratulations Maureen!

Congratulations to the newly minted Master Zack Valenti!

Yesterday, Master Valenti presented his thesis project which was part of the lab's Small Business Innovation Research grant.

Fortunately for us, we don't have to say goodbye to him as his next step is to start his doctoral work with Dan Lark just across the lab!

Congratulations again Zack, well done!!!

BIG congratulations to Masters student Maureen Walsh and undergraduate student Tommy Kail for being poster finalists at the Rocky Mountain ACSM. Tommy tied for first place and Maureen got second!! Moreover, Maureen was awarded a Rocky Mountain ACSM Research grant!

Congrats to Rob Musci for a successful seminar yesterday! The attendance was outstanding with many questions from the audience. Well done Rob! Thank you for representing TRACD so well.

Check out this important work by our friend and Health and Exercise Science graduate, Becky Scalzo.
https://www.facebook.com/133889943313263/posts/1936264536409119/

Why is it so important to study women’s health? “For women to receive optimal health care, we need to understand how diseases and treatments specifically impact women,” explained Dr. Rebecca Scalzo, junior faculty researcher here at the CWHR. Read more about how Dr. Scalzo’s is working to close the gap in knowledge in . https://bit.ly/2Q7A7NJ

Takeaway point: fitness increases your life- and healthspan (and exercise is probably the best way to "get fit").

So there's been a dubious interpretation of a study from the Mayo Clinic suggesting there's no such thing as "too much exercise." The study cited did not test that. Instead, it looked at the odds of dying based on your fitness over 10 years. The fitter you are, the less likely you are to have died in those 10 years. However, there's an even more impressive study that drives home how important exercise is:

The adapted figure attached is from researchers in Copenhagen who actually followed over 5000 men (unfortunately no women) over 46 years. They found the fitter the men stayed, the longer they lived, regardless of bodyweight. (~5 years more than "unfit" individuals).

Studies:
Clausen, J. S. R., Marott, J. L., Holtermann, A., Gyntelberg, F. & Jensen, M. T. Midlife Cardiorespiratory Fitness and the Long-Term Risk of Mortality: 46 Years of Follow-Up. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 72, 987–995 (2018).
http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/72/9/987

Mandsager, K. et al. Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing. JAMA Network Open 1, e183605–12 (2018).
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2707428

Seems like a good time to publicly recognize the outstanding efforts of the entire cast of the TRACD lab, along with that of Dr. Kelly Santangelo’s, in getting to this point in a big NIH funded project. They’ve been working really hard since before January of this year. It is a privilege to be part of this amazing team. Pictured here is where you can find Rob Musci most days of the week. Great leadership efforts Rob!

Thanks to Tessa Nguyen for her photographic expertise! Here's an updated photo of the TRACD gang...with the exception of Tommy Kail who was unable to join us. We'll get a winter photo that includes Tommy!

Congrats to our summer intern, Taylor, from the Colorado School of Mines. She completed her project in about two months and presented her work this week. She rocked it!

Hats off to master's student Justin Reid who presented his thesis "Novel Insights into Protein Synthesis Rates in the Brain Following Two Lifespan-Extending Treatments."

Not only is he the first to measure protein synthesis in the brain using stable isotope tracers, he gave an absolute masterclass in presentation style.

Congratulations Justin!