Taking advantage of the visit of Richard Faragher to Santiago to take part on our initiative Regueifas de Ciencia, we decided to invite Richard to give a scientific talk at our institute. His seminar took place last November 8th, at 12pm on Auditorium 1 of the Hospital, and the title of his talk was: “RNA splicing and replicative senescence in human cell systems: one or two ageing mechanisms?”
Dr Richard G.A. Faragher is Professor of Biogerontology at the School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton, United Kingdom. He is past Chair of both the British Society for Research on Aging and the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology. He is the first British citizen to be elected to the Board of Directors of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), the leading US non-profit organization supporting and advancing healthy aging through biomedical research.
His primary research interest is in uncovering the causal mechanisms driving the human ageing process and in translating that knowledge into effective interventions which will improve the wellbeing of older people. His particular interest is the phenotype of “senescent” cells. These are cells which can no longer divide, frequently as a result of tissue turnover through life, and which accumulate in mammalian tissue. It has been shown that the deletion of these cells in animal models improves multiple markers of health, opening radical prospects for the improvement of human health in the future.
In July 2016, Richard received the highest honour of the British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA) – the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead Medal for services to gerontology. The BSRA is the oldest scientific society in the world devoted to researching the biology of ageing.