Cynthia Kenyon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cynthia Kenyon
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| Born | February 21, 1954 |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Known for | Aging in C. elegans |
| Awards | Dan David Prize Dickson Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biologist |
| Institutions | Calico Life Sciences, LLC; Professor emeritus University of California San Francisco (UCSF) MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology |
| Doctoral advisor | Graham C. Walker |
| Notable students | Coleen T. Murphy Andrew Dillin |
Cynthia Jane Kenyon (born February 21, 1954) is an American molecular biologist. She studies the tiny details of living things. She is also a biogerontologist, which means she studies the biology of aging.
Cynthia Kenyon is famous for her work on how genes affect aging. She uses a small roundworm called C. elegans for her research. This worm is a "model organism" because it helps scientists understand basic life processes. She works at Calico Research Labs and is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Cynthia Kenyon's Career
Cynthia Kenyon finished college at the University of Georgia in 1976. She studied chemistry and biochemistry. In 1981, she earned her Ph.D. from MIT. There, she discovered how DNA-damaging agents activate genes that help repair DNA in bacteria.
Later, she did more research with Nobel Prize winner Sydney Brenner. She studied how C. elegans worms develop. Since 1986, she has been a professor at UCSF. In 1999, she helped start a company called Elixir Pharmaceuticals. This company aimed to find medicines that could slow down aging.
In 2014, Cynthia Kenyon became the Vice President of Aging Research at Calico. This new company focuses on health and living longer. She is still connected to UCSF as a professor.
Her early work showed that certain genes, called Hox genes, help shape the bodies of many animals. Before her work, scientists thought these genes only affected body parts in fruit flies. Her findings proved that Hox genes are a very old and basic system for body development in many animals.
Discoveries About Aging
Scientists knew that changes in genes could affect how long an organism lives. In 1993, Cynthia Kenyon made a big discovery. She found that changing just one gene, called Daf-2, could double the lifespan of the C. elegans worm. This meant the worm lived twice as long!
She also found that a second gene, daf-16, could reverse this effect. Her discovery led to a lot of new studies on the biology of aging. Scientists now know that a similar system of hormones influences aging in many other organisms, including mammals.
Awards and Honors
Cynthia Kenyon has received many awards for her important work:
- 1997 Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2000 King Faisal Prize for Medicine
- 2003 Member, United States National Academy of Sciences
- 2003 President, Genetics Society of America
- 2004 Association of American Medical Colleges Award for Distinguished Research
- 2005 Ilse & Helmut Wachter Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement
- 2006 La Fondation IPSEN Prize in Longevity
- 2008 AARP Inspire Award
- 2011 Dan David Prize for the Future – Aging: Facing the Challenge
- 2021 Dickson Prize in Medicine
Personal Diet
Cynthia Kenyon's research also changed her own life. In 2000, she learned that giving sugar to worms made them live shorter lives. Because of this, she stopped eating foods high in sugar and certain carbohydrates. She started eating a low-carbohydrate diet. She even tried a very strict calorie restriction diet for two days, but she found it too hard to stay hungry all the time.
See also
In Spanish: Cynthia Kenyon para niños
- Genetics of aging
