Cynthia Jane Kenyon (born February 21, 1954) is an American

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physic ...

and

biogerontologist Biogerontology is the sub-field of gerontology concerned with the biological aging process, its evolutionary origins, and potential means to intervene in the process. The term "biogerontology" was coined by S. Rattan, and came in regular use wit ...

known for her genetic dissection of

aging Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

in a widely used

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

, the roundworm ''

Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (r ...

''. She is the vice president of aging research at Calico Research Labs, and emeritus professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It ...

(

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

Career

Cynthia Kenyon graduated valedictorian in chemistry and biochemistry from the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

in 1976. She received her Ph.D. in 1981 from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

where, in Graham Walker's laboratory, she looked for genes on the basis of their activity profiles, discovering that DNA-damaging agents activate a battery of

DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA d ...

genes in E. coli. She then did postdoctoral studies with Nobel laureate

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work ...

at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England, studying the development of ''C. elegans.'' Since 1986 she has been at the UCSF, where she was the

Herbert Boyer Herbert Wayne "Herb" Boyer (born July 10, 1936) is an American biotechnologist, researcher and entrepreneur in biotechnology. Along with Stanley N. Cohen and Paul Berg he discovered a method to coax bacteria into producing foreign proteins, the ...

Distinguished Professor of

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

and

Biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

and is now an

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

Professor. In 1999, she co- Elixir Pharmaceuticals with

Leonard Guarente Leonard Pershing Guarente (born 1952) is an American biologist best known for his research on life span extension in the budding yeast ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'', roundworms (''Caenorhabditis elegans''), and mice. He is a Novartis Professor o ...

to try to discover and develop drugs that would slow down the process that makes people age. In April 2014, Kenyon was named Vice President of Aging Research at

Calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

, a new company focused on health, well-being, and longevity. Prior to that, she served as a part-time advisor beginning in November 2013. Kenyon remains affiliated with UCSF as an emeritus professor. Her early work led to the discovery that

Hox gene Hox genes, a subset of homeobox genes, are a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the cor ...

s, which were known to pattern the body segments of the fruit fly (''Drosophila'') also pattern the body of ''C. elegans''. These findings demonstrated that Hox genes were not simply involved in segmentation, as thought, but instead were part of a much more ancient and fundamental

metazoan Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

patterning system. Michael Klass discovered that lifespan of ''C. elegans'' could be altered by mutations, but Klass believed that the effect was due to reduced food consumption ( caloric restriction). Thomas Johnson later showed that the 65%

life extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled limit of 125 years. Several researchers in the area ...

effect was due to the mutation itself rather than due to caloric restriction. In 1993, Kenyon's discovery that a single-gene mutation (

Daf-2 The DAF-2 gene encodes for the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptor in the worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans''. DAF-2 is part of the first metabolic pathway discovered to regulate the rate of aging. DAF-2 is also known to regulate reproducti ...

) could double the lifespan of ''C. elegans'' and that this could be reversed by a second mutation in

daf-16 DAF-16 is the sole ortholog of the FOXO family of transcription factors in the nematode ''Caenorhabditis elegans''. It is responsible for activating genes involved in longevity, lipogenesis, heat shock survival and oxidative stress responses. It ...

m, sparked an intensive study of the molecular biology of aging, including work by

and David Sinclair. Kenyon's findings have led to the discovery that an evolutionarily conserved hormone signaling system influences aging in other organisms, perhaps also including mammals. Kenyon has received many honors, including the King Faisal Prize for Medicine, the

Association of American Medical Colleges The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was established in 1876. It represents medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an i ...

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 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. She was President of the

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soci ...

for 2003.

Personal diet

Kenyon's research prompted her to make personal dietary changes. In 2000, when she discovered that putting sugar on the worms' food shortened their lifespans, she stopped eating high

glycemic index The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...

carbohydrates and started eating a

low-carbohydrate diet Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate consumption relative to the average diet. Foods high in carbohydrates (e.g., sugar, bread, pasta) are limited, and replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of fat and protein (e.g., meat, ...

. She briefly experimented with a

calorie restriction Calorie restriction (caloric restriction or energy restriction) is a dietary regimen that reduces intake of energy from caloric foods & beverages without incurring malnutrition. "Reduce" can be defined relative to the subject's previous intake b ...

diet for two days, but couldn't stand the constant hunger.

References

External links

Basic Research: Cynthia Kenyon
by Steven Kotler in ''Discover'', vol. 25, no. 11, 2004
Cynthia Kenyon's Seminar: Genes that Control Aging

Cynthia Kenyon Talk: A Genetic Control Circuit for Aging

In Methuselah's Mould
an open-access interview discussing Kenyon's research and her personal low carb diet. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenyon, Cynthia American women biochemists American biophysicists American geneticists Women biophysicists American women geneticists Biogerontologists Women medical researchers University of Georgia alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1955 births Living people Life extensionists 21st-century American women Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Career

Personal diet

See also

References

External links