UK/US agree first-time joint funding for ageing research programme

This is the first time a UK research council has partnered the US National Institute of Health in a single peer review process. The projects were assessed using the NIH peer review system and BBSRC supported the NIH to put together a mixed US-UK panel to carry out the peer review on behalf of both funders.

The transatlantic research teams will study the biology of ageing, investigating why older immune systems do not work as well, what genetic and molecular effects in the body determine age span, and how environmental factors impact on the genetics of ageing.

Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive, said, “By working together, [we] have been able to capitalise on the world class research in both countries and leverage the funding available to our scientists.”

Glasgow University and Brown University will work together to test a new biological theory of ageing; University College London and the University of Arizona will collaborate to study the decline in immunity of the skin of older people; Edinburgh University and the University of Georgia will examine the effects of fluctuating hormone levels on the immune systems of older people; King’s College London and the Georgia Institute of Technology will look at how environmental factors influence the level of activity of certain genes involved in ageing; Bangor University and the University of Texas Health Science Centre, San Antonio are looking to the world’s longest-lived animal, the ocean quahog, to ask what factors affect longevity and how they lead to such a wide variation in lifespan; and Imperial College London and the University of Washington are focusing on a molecular system in cells that is involved in healthy ageing.