Speakers: Marie Bernard, Deputy Director, National Institute on Aging; Kate E. Creevy, Chief Veterinary Officer, Dog Aging Project, Texas A&M University; S. Michal Jazwinski, Tulane University and GSA President; Matt Kaeberlein, Dog Aging Project, University of Washington

Age is the greatest risk factor for many chronic conditions, such as obesity, arthritis, dementia, diabetes, and many cancers. This is true in people and also in our canine companions, who age about seven times more rapidly than humans. The goal of the citizen science program, The Dog Aging Project, is to understand how genes, lifestyle, and environment influence biological aging in companion dogs. The project is conducting the first large-scale longitudinal study of canine aging in more than 10,000 dogs along with double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of rapamycin to slow aging in dogs. The results of this Project will facilitate efforts to increase health span, the period of life spent free from disease, in companion animals and their people. At this session, attendees will learn about how the citizen science program was conceived and is being implemented, and how the results apply and may be translated to humans.