Buck Institute for Age Research

The Buck Institute for Age Research is the United States' first independent biomedical research institute devoted solely to research on aging and age-related disease. The mission of the Buck Institute is to extend the healthspan, the healthy years of life.

The Institute, a nonprofit organization located in Novato, California, began its research program in 1999. In 2005 the National Institute of Aging designated the Buck Institute a Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Biology of Aging, one of just five centers in the U.S.

The Buck Institute's focus is on geroscience an emerging scientific discipline that includes the interrelated activities of molecular biologists, neuroscientists, protein chemists, cell biologists, geneticists, endocrinologists, pharmacologists, bioinformaticians and others who have the common goal of understanding and intervening in age-related disease.

Research themes at the Buck Institute include studies involving the basic mechanisms of aging - utilizing research models of yeast, nematode worms, fruit flies and mice; studies focused on age-associated conditions such as cancer, arthritis, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease; and stem cell and regenerative medicine. Interdisciplinary research at the Buck Institute is supported by technology cores which include genomics, proteomics and mass spectrometry, morphology, transgenics, and bioinformatics.

The Buck Institute actively seeks to transfer its inventions to the commercial sector, so that efforts to detect, prevent and treat age-related disease move from the laboratory to the clinic as soon as possible.