Co-Director of the Institute for Aging and Health, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Tom Kirkwood was born on 6 July 1951 in Durban,
South Africa. Educated in biology and mathematics
at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, he
worked at the UK National Institute for Medical
Research from 1981 until 1993, when he became BritainĘs
first Professor of Biological Gerontology at the
University of Manchester. In 1999, he was appointed
Professor of Medicine at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
where he is Co-Director of the Institute for Aging
and Health and heads the Department of Gerontology.
He has been Chair of the British Society for Research
on Aging, Governor and Chair of the Research Advisory
Council of the medical research charity 'Research
into Aging', and Chair of the UK Foresight Task
Force on 'Health Care of Older People'. He is author
of the award-winning books Time of Our Lives: the
Science of Human Aging and of Chance, Development
and Aging, co-authored with leading US gerontologist
Caleb Finch. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 2001
on The End of Age [also published in book form]
and has contributed to numerous television and radio
documentaries and discussions about aging. Kirkwood
has been actively involved in aging research since
1975. His work on the disposable soma theory, first
proposed in 1977, provides an evolutionary explanation
of aging that makes testable predictions about cell
and molecular mechanisms and the genetic basis of
longevity. The current focus of his research group
is on testing these ideas, particularly the role
of cell stress response and maintenance systems
in aging and longevity. The group has a core interest
in modelling the complex molecular mechanisms that
contribute to aging and has pioneered network models
that permit analysis of interactions between different
contributing processes. At an experimental level,
the group focuses on integrative mechanisms of cell
aging and recently identified some of the first
clear evidence for intrinsic age-related changes
in the functional properties of tissue stem cells.
At a population level, the group has shown evidence
in human records of a trade-off between fertility
and longevity, as predicted by the disposable soma
theory, and has developed evolutionary models to
explain menopause in humans and the life-extending
effects of calorie restriction in rodents. |
