Bruce A. Yankner, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurology at Children’s Hospital in Boston and at Harvard Medical School is a world leader in the study of aging, using the brain as a model system. Dr. Yankner received an M.D., Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1982, and was a resident of Internal Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, (1984) and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, (1987). Dr. Yankner's early work was seminal to the understanding of the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. His recent work on aging, analyzing the expression of 11,000 genes in the brain, has revealed a genetic signature in the brains of individuals between 26 and 106 years old. One group of genes controls how the brain makes new connections critical to learning and memory. Another set of genes that are turned on in the aging brain is involved in processes such as responses to stresses and defense against damaging oxidants such as free radicals. The researchers also found that regions of particular genes are quite vulnerable to DNA damage in the aging brain. Individuals between ages 40 and 73 - the middle years - were shown to age at strikingly different rates. Working with other members of the Paul F. Glenn laboratories, Dr. Yankner and his team have set their sights on unraveling key mechanisms of aging and finding small molecules to slow the degeneration process.