Cynthia Kenyon
Cynthia Jane Kenyon (born February 21, 1954) is an American molecular biologist and geneticist. She does research on the genetics of aging in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, which is a roundworm.
Career
Kenyon did postdoctoral studies with Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, studying the development of C. elegans.
Since 1986 she has been at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), as the Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and now as an American Cancer Society professor. She is also Vice President of Aging Research at Calico, a new company focused on health, well-being, and longevity.
Research
Her early work led to the discovery that hox genes, known to pattern the body segments of the fruit fly Drosophila, also pattern the body of C. elegans. These findings showed that hox genes were part of an ancient and fundamental metazoan patterning system.
Michael Klass discovered that lifespan of C. elegans could be altered by mutations, but he believed the effect was due to reduced food consumption (calorie restriction). Later, Thomas Johnson showed that the 65% life extension effect was due to the mutation itself, not calorie restriction.
In 1993, Kenyon discovered that a single gene mutation (daf-2) could double the lifespan of C. elegans and that this could be reversed by a second mutation in daf-16m. This set off an intensive study of the molecular biology of aging. Kenyon's findings led to the discovery that an evolutionarily-conserved hormone signaling system influences aging in other organisms, perhaps also mammals.
The company she founded, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, is trying to make a pill that would slow down the process that makes people age. It would mimic gene manipulation.
Honors
Kenyon has received many honors, including the King Faisal Prize for Medicine, the American Association of Medical Colleges Award for Distinguished Research, the Ilse & Helmut Wachter Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and La Fondation IPSEN Prize, for her findings. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is now the director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at UCSF. She is also one of featured biologists in the 1995 science documentary Death by Design / The Life and Times of Life and Times.
Personal diet
Kenyon's research prompted her to make personal dietary changes. She stopped eating high glycemic index carbohydrates when she discovered that putting sugar on the worms' food shortened their lifespans.
Kenyon follows a low glycemic index diet similar to the Atkins diet and the South Beach Diet.
In the past, Kenyon had also briefly experimented with a calorie restriction diet for two days, but couldn't stand the constant hunger.
Related pages
Senescence
References
Other websites
NIH Profile: Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D.
Basic Research: Cynthia Kenyon by Steven Kotler in Discover, vol. 25, no. 11, 2004
Kenyon Lab at UCSF
Cynthia Kenyon's seminar: Genes that Control Aging
Cynthia Kenyon: "A GENETIC CONTROL CIRCUIT FOR AGING"
Cynthia Kenyon Seminar: "Longevity Mutants"
Elixir Pharmaceuticals
Kenyon Lab website
In Methuselah's Mould, an open-access interview discussing Kenyon's research and her personal low carb diet.
American geneticists
American biochemists
American biophysicists
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
1955 births
Living people