JCVI Receives $1.25M For Healthy Aging Study

Aug 29 2013

The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) received a $1.25 million donation from the Ruggles Family Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr. to identify and study biomarkers associated with healthy aging. JCVI will collaborate with the Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) as part of the four year grant.

Led by a team of scientists and clinicians from JCVI and WCHN, the study will focus on two groups of elderly participants-;one consisting of healthy individuals and the other of those diagnosed with health conditions-;aged 65 to 85 years, by correlating genetics with human genomic, gut microbiome, and other omics profiles and integrating the data with the individuals' health record.

The team will then compare the microbiome and molecular profiles of the healthy aging group with those of the non-healthy aging group to identify biomarker candidates. Investigators hope the data can be used to develop cost-effective, clinically relevant tests.

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