Amy Wagers, associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University and the Joslin Diabetes Center, has joined the Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging at Harvard Medical School. Wagers joins fellow HMS faculty members David Sinclair, Bruce Yankner and Marcia Haigis in the fundamental exploration of why and how we age.
The appointment is supported by a second significant gift from the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to Harvard Medical School. Harvard was one of the first institutions to receive funding from the foundation, whose mission is to grow a community of top researchers in the world dedicated to studying the mechanisms of aging in an effort to extend the healthy productive years of life.
“I’m excited about collaborating with my colleagues at the Glenn Labs,” Wagers said. “Understanding the mechanics of aging is at the core of so many biological phenomena and crucial for our understanding of both health and disease. I’m delighted that the Foundation has provided me this fantastic opportunity to work more closely with some of the world’s best scientists is the aging field.”
“Amy is an extraordinarily talented scientist,” said William Chin, HMS executive dean for research. “Her work in the area of stem cells speaks for itself. Thanks to the Foundation’s support she will no doubt contribute exciting research to Harvard Medical School’s efforts in the biology of aging with a focus on muscle”
Work in the Wagers lab focuses on mechanisms that regulate the migration, expansion, and regenerative potential of blood- and muscle-forming stem cells, work relevant to conditions from leukemia to muscular dystrophy. She has investigated why the regenerative potential of stem cells typically declines with age, impairing the ability of aged tissues to recover after injury. As a member of the Glenn Labs, Wagers and her team will pursue a new lead focused on age-related changes in blood-circulating cells and factors and novel strategies to reverse age-related loss of stem cell activity and restore robust regenerative function.
Wagers joined the HMS faculty in 2004, after completing her PhD in immunology and microbial pathogenesis at Northwestern University and a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Irving Weissman at Stanford School of Medicine. She is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, the W.M. Keck Distinguished Young Scholars Award, the Smith Family New Investigator Award, and an Early Career Scientist Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
