# Caenorhabditis Intervention Testing Program - Buck Institute Compound Testing

> **NIH NIH U01** · BUCK INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON AGING · 2021 · $726,520

## Abstract

Project Summary
Health challenges linked to human aging take a tremendous toll on our society. Physical and cognitive decline
limit the quality of life for the elderly and their caregivers. Aging is the major risk factor for, and possible cause
of cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disease, and thus struggle with debilitating disease is a common
health burden for the aging population. Without question, the promotion of healthy aging with extended
resistance to decline should be a major objective of current medical research.
To investigate healthy aging, simple animals models such as the nematode C. elegans have been studied,
providing molecular insights into the genes and chemical compound interventions that can modulate conserved
aging processes likely to act similarly in humans. The goal of the proposed work is to continue, and expand,
efforts of a co-operative scientific group involving three closely interacting laboratories who coordinately test
pharmacological interventions for the ability to extend healthy aging and promote longevity in nematodes. A
specific emphasis of this integrated super-group is to test promising drugs on a collection of natural variants of
the Caenorhabditis genus, which together represent the extensive genetic heterogeneity in the human
population. The idea is that treatments that confer positive outcomes across a diverse population will have an
increased chance of being efficacious in higher organisms and will be suggested as priority interventions for
testing in pre-clinical mouse studies and possibly future human trials.
The emphasis of this CITP Buck proposal is to report on progress in testing compounds and our proposed
workflow as we open the CITP to the general biomedical community.
Overall, we will participate in a unique team project that has the power to define pharmacological interventions
that robustly promote strong healthspan across a varied population, with implications for development of
therapies that promote healthy human aging.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10137864
- **Project number:** 5U01AG045844-08
- **Recipient organization:** BUCK INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON AGING
- **Principal Investigator:** Gordon J Lithgow
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $726,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-08-15 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10137864

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10137864, Caenorhabditis Intervention Testing Program - Buck Institute Compound Testing (5U01AG045844-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10137864. Licensed CC0.

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