April 10, 2009
PORTLAND, Ore. – One of OHSU’s rising faculty stars in the field of aging research has received a prestigious Leadership in Aging Fellowship from the Brookdale Foundation Group, a private grant-making foundation located in New York.
The fellowship, one of four awarded each year to up-and-coming leaders in geriatrics and gerontology, will support the research of Ilhem Messaoudi, Ph.D., an assistant scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. The two-year grant totaling nearly $255,000 will support Dr. Messaoudi’s study of age-related decline in the immune system – also known as immune senescence.
As the function of the immune system declines, older people face heightened risk of contracting – and dying from – infectious diseases, especially emerging conditions such as SARS and West Nile virus. Other factors such as obesity and menopause are believed to accelerate immune senescence. The fellowship will help Dr. Messaoudi study these effects and more as part of the search for ways to improve immunity and increase the effectiveness of vaccines. Her studies will provide additional information for clinicians and women to consider as they discuss the time of onset, duration and type of hormone replacement therapy.
The Brookdale Leadership in Aging Fellowship Program fosters leaders in aging, and each year brings together past and current fellows to network and exchange ideas. Awards support junior faculty who display leadership potential and have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to a career in aging. Awards support a broad range of disciplines including, but not limited to, medical, biological and basic sciences, nursing, social sciences, the arts and humanities.
Other 2009 recipients include researchers at prestigious institutions such as UCLA, Penn State, and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.
Dr. Messaoudi received her B.Sc. in biochemistry from Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) in 1996. She obtained a joint doctorate degree in immunology from The Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2001. She carried out her post-doctoral training at the OHSU primate center laboratory of Janko Nikolich-Zugich, M.D., Ph.D., where she focused on the characterization of changes in the phenotype and function of T cells with age in both mice and non-human primates.
“This fellowship will help me establish a successful research program,” Dr. Messaoudi said. “Not only will it provide the funds necessary to carry out experiments, but more importantly it will also give me the opportunity to develop unique collaborations through interactions with other scientists who are dedicated to improving the quality of life for our elders.”
