Dr. Madison Doolittle, assistant professor in the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development at the UConn School of Dental Medicine, recently received a grant from the American Federation for Aging and Research (AFAR) to support his research on accelerated tissue aging and test potential therapeutic treatments.

AFAR’s Grants for Junior Faculty Program provides up to $150,000 to junior faculty for 1-2 years to conduct research that will serve as the basis for longer term research efforts on the biology of aging.

“I am thrilled to receive this award from AFAR,” said Doolittle. “At a time where research funding is in such jeopardy, I am incredibly thankful to AFAR for providing this award so that we can continue to study the complicated nature of biological aging in the skeleton.”

The funding will allow Doolittle’s lab to study injury as a catalyst for accelerated skeletal tissue aging. After breaking a bone, lingering symptoms such as pain, stiffness, and arthritis can occur, and this can increasingly get worse with age. Clinical data shows that a previous bone fracture, regardless of age, can increase the risk of fracture in old age. Based on these factors, it is believed that previously fractured bones age faster than non-fractured bones, resulting in accelerated bone loss driven by higher proportions of aged “senescent” cells.

This award will allow Doolittle to further study this phenomenon in mouse models and test a potential therapeutic approach to correct for premature aging in both bone and systemic tissues.

“What I’m most looking forward to is the effect these findings may have on eventual clinical applications, as fractures in the elderly are one of the most catastrophic events regarding frailty and loss of independence,” said Doolittle. “In future projects, it would be interesting to see if this occurs in other tissues as well, which would implicate injury as a universal driver of premature aging.”

The goal of the Grants for Junior Faculty program is to assist in the development of the careers of early career investigators committed to pursuing careers in aging research.

“A core grant program since AFAR’s inception, the AFAR Grant for Junior Faculty provides flexible support at a critical juncture in an early career investigator’s career when research funding is most difficult to secure,” notes Stephanie Lederman, executive director of AFAR in the news release, “This grant has helped many promising scientists advance the field’s understanding the basic mechanisms of aging, building a foundation of knowledge that will help us all live healthier, longer.”