Two University of Oklahoma researchers have been awarded more than $2 million in grants from the Hevolution Foundation to further their studies on age-related cognitive impairment, with an emphasis on improving "health span," or the number of years a person remains healthy. While modern medicine can help extend a person's life span, researchers are increasingly studying ways to increase their healthy years of life. Because the process of aging increases the risk for memory problems and dementia, researchers must understand why as a first step toward delaying cognitive issues until later in life.
The Hevolution Foundation invests in science that aims to uncover the root causes of aging. As we have longer life spans, it's really important to identify ways to simultaneously promote increased health spans. It's challenging when you have loved ones who have severe illness or cognitive impairment, yet they are not dying; they are physically able to keep living.
We want to help people stay healthier longer." Shannon Conley, Ph.D.
, Hevolution grant recipient, assistant professor of cell biology, OU College of Medicine She is leading the work of the grant with Anna Csiszar, Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery in the OU College of Medicine.
In their project, they seek to better understand how two types of cells in blood vessels work together for brain health but become dysfunctional as a person ages. Endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels, and smooth muscle cells, which are on .
