This proposal seeks partial support for a four-day meeting of biogerontologists to be held in conjunction with the 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in San Francisco, CA, November 16-20, 2007. The GSA is the largest organization in the United States devoted to the study of aging. Ten invited symposia have been selected to reflect current areas of rapidly progressing research and explore biological mechanisms underlying the processes of aging and age-associated diseases in order to collect information useful for maintaining the health and vitality of the elderly. The theme of the 2007 meeting 'The Era of Global Aging: Challenges and Opportunities' is very timely, and several of the invited symposia will actually address issues that impact global health, such as the sessions on Vaccines and on HIV disease & aging. Our goal is to bring diverse disciplines together to form an exciting milieu for interchange between broad areas of expertise. The Biological Sciences component of the meeting will focus on mechanisms of aging in health and age-associated diseases to gain new insight into understanding of the aging process. We plan to integrate the invited symposia with submitted poster sessions and disseminate useful scientific information to interested participants ahead of the meeting in order to create a rich environment for the exchange of ideas and experimental protocols. It is intended that this conference will provide the attendees with a broad overview of the direction of recent research in the biology of aging and provide a guide as to how future research will evolve. Individual life expectancy from birth has dramatically increased, leading to an unprecedented aging of our society. The proposed symposia reflect current areas of rapidly progressing research and explore biological mechanisms underlying the processes of aging and age-associated diseases. The dissemination of information that is useful for maintaining the health and vitality of this age group will have a significant impact on the quality of life of a large number of Americans. ? ? ?
