Ricki Colman

My laboratory utilizes nonhuman primate models to explore the impact of nutrition and metabolism on health across the aging continuum. The bulk of my research has focused on later life timepoints and the ability of caloric restriction to modulate the aging process. Caloric restriction offers a powerful way to explore mechanisms of aging because it is the only environmental intervention that repeatedly and strongly increases maximum life span and delays aging in a diverse array of experimental organisms. The inverse linear relationship between caloric intake and lifespan extension in rodents suggests a role for factors involved in the regulation of energy metabolism in the mechanisms of caloric restriction. Alterations in energy metabolism are observed in multiple species on caloric restriction, including humans. Therefore, after showing the efficacy of calorie restriction in nonhuman primates, my calorie restriction research has focused largely on exploring the hypothesis that caloric restriction induces an altered state of energy metabolism that promotes health and longevity. Although the caloric restriction study has been ongoing for many years, given the lifespan of our highly relevant model, it is only within the past several years that we have been able to begin to seriously address mechanism and the potential for calorie restriction mimetics. Following successful preliminary studies, new work in rhesus monkeys exploring the potential of an adiponectin receptor agonist to mimic the beneficial effects of calorie restriction is set to begin soon.

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