On Nov. 30, the Longer Life Foundation, a cooperative effort between the School of Medicine and the Reinsurance Group of America, will welcome its first Longer Life Foundation Visiting Scholar, Steven N. Blair, professor in the departments of exercise science and epidemiology and biostatistics at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, and executive lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation at the University of North Texas.
Blair, past-president of the American College of Sports Medicine, studies the associations between lifestyle and health with a specific emphasis on exercise, physical fitness, body composition and chronic disease.
The Longer Life Foundation also has a new director. Samuel Klein, M.D., the Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science and professor of cell biology and physiology, has succeeded Edwin Fisher, Ph.D., who is now on the faculty at the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health.
This year the foundation, which funds independent research studying ways to improve methods for predicting long-term mortality from various diseases or for promoting quality and quantity of life, awarded a grant to Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, to study the effects of calorie restriction on markers of aging and longevity.
Julie A. Margenthaler, M.D., assistant professor of surgery, received a grant to study minimally invasive staging of the axilla in breast cancer. An-thony J. Muslin, M.D., professor of medicine and of molecular and cellular biology, received a grant to study the effects of a particular genotype on longevity and health, especially as it affects cardiovascular health.
Fisher continues to receive funding for an ongoing study of the effects of social support on health and longevity, particularly involving diabetes and certain types of cancer.
The call for grant applications for 2007 will occur in February with a March deadline for those proposals.