Course Description

Why do we age?  How can some species, like lobster, escape aging? We would all like to understand human aging but, as you will see, even if that is our motivation we cannot experiment with humans and it is only through experiments with other species that the hypotheses about the causes of aging can be tested. Beyond the lab, we can also look at species in the wild, such as lobsters, mayflies, and trees to uncover extreme variation in the patterns of aging in the natural world.

How do evolutionary theories, ecology, cell biology and genetics help us to understand variation in the patterns of aging across species from bacteria to plants to Drosophila? Different disciplines across biology study aging with different tools and we will integrate these approaches to synthesize what is known across multiple fields. Most people come to this subject expecting one answer so please do not get frustrated when you find that there are many reasons that organisms age.  This is a very active field of research and we do not yet know all of the answers.

My broader goal is to provide you with skills to understand how science is done.  You will learn how to read primary scientific literature and how to interpret data.  In the future when you read in the New York Times about the latest discoveries, you can put them into context and make your own evaluation about the validity of new findings.  Someday, in your lifetime, someone will develop an intervention to slow the process of aging in humans, and I hope that you will be able to understand the biology of these interventions and be in a position to address the implications of these discoveries for society.

Course Objectives

In this course you will learn about the biology of aging across many species and you will develop skills to evaluate current research in the field. Specifically I expect that you will be able to,

• Identify and explain variation in the patterns of aging.
• Know how aging might be manipulated in the future.  
• Synthesize different disciplinary approaches to understand aging.
• Acquire and demonstrate an ability to read primary scientific literature, to interpret results and to understand how science is done.