NSF Award
2213824
In many animals, either females or males age faster or have a longer lifespan. This aging difference has significant implications for biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, and human health. In humans, for example, females live longer than males, and females and males differ in how aging manifests itself in terms of physical decline and disease. What causes the diverse patterns of aging differences seen in nature is unknown. The IISAGE Biology Integration Institute will determine how multiple biological processes contribute to differences in aging between females and males and uncover their evolutionary history. IISAGE will bring together expertise from across biology to identify the molecular mechanisms and generalizable rules that govern differences in aging between females and males. Tightly integrated projects will test hypotheses focused on differences between females and males in genome architecture, organismal biology, and phenotypic plasticity to understand differences in aging. IISAGE will define how processes at the molecular, organismal, and population level interact to generate aging differences between females and males. Integrated with its scientific mission, IISAGE’s training, education, and outreach program will increase diversity in STEM and prepare trainees to work in diverse careers and in multidisciplinary teams. The IISAGE summer program will engage > 50 undergraduates from groups underrepresented in STEM. A citizen science project will engage pet owners and K-12 students to collect data for IISAGE scientific goals.<br/><br/>Identifying rules that explain differences in aging is challenging because there are many differences between females and males. IISAGE will determine how genome architecture, organismal biology, and phenotypic plasticity generate differences in aging and define evolutionarily conserved and taxon-specific mechanisms controlling those differences in aging between females and males. To do so, IISAGE will produce novel analysis tools and hundreds of matched datasets profiling gene expression and chromatin in dozens of species. By integrating across disciplines, approaches, and levels of biological organization, IISAGE will develop predictive models for how genome architecture, organismal biology, and phenotypic plasticity can interact and lead to differences in aging. IISAGE’s approach will include data from wild species, laboratory manipulations, and citizen scientists to provide unprecedented insights into the mechanisms controlling differences in aging between females and males. The datasets, tools, and insights derived from IISAGE’s work will be of interest to scientists ranging from basic biologists to translational researchers in the medical and conservation fields, while IISAGE outreach and training activities will engage the public.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
