By Guy Kovner, The Press Democrat, October 1, 2019
Wading into an area little known to science, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging on Monday launched a study of the harmful health effects women experience after menopause, paid for with a $6 million gift from Nicole Shanahan, a Bay Area tech entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Shanahan is married to Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and among the wealthiest people in the world.
Eric Verdin, president and CEO of the Novato research group, called the announcement of the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality “one of the most exciting days in the life of the institute,” which opened 20 years ago Monday.
The center is the first in the world focused on preventing or delaying ovarian aging, Buck officials said, noting the subject has been recognized but not significantly investigated.
“There’s a profound inequality here between men and women,” Verdin told an audience of 225 people in the institute’s auditorium. Menopause triggers a cascade of negative health effects, including osteoporosis and risk of heart disease, he said.
The age at which a woman reaches menopause “is a very strong indicator of lifespan,” Verdin said, noting that men have no such experience. “Menopause makes the body age faster.”
Recent studies have shown ovarian aging may be caused by some “molecular mechanisms,” such as impaired DNA repair, metabolic and energetic disorders and mitochondrial dysfunction.
[Please click here to read the full story.]
Comments (0)