Vintage Gerontology

Abstract

Judith Campisi meandered from college chemistry major to gas station clerk, Avon lady, and hippie folksinger before pursuing a career in cell and molecular biology. Studying cancer and the cell cycle at Boston University in the mid-'80s, she was initially skeptical that senescence, a stage in which cells stop splitting but do not die, had anything to do with whole-organism aging. But her own research into the question changed her mind. Today, based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and the Buck Institute for Age Research in nearby Novato, she is exploring the paradoxical hypothesis that cell senescence might prevent the development of tumors early in life as well as promote the cancers of old age; she also studies the premature human aging disorder called Werner syndrome and cellular resistance to oxidative stress. Since moving to California, Campisi has taken an interest in another aging process: the kind that produces a fine Syrah. An enophile, she enjoys tasting and making wine.