NEW YORK, NY— The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Grants for Junior Faculty. The Grants for Junior Faculty program provides up to $150,000 to junior faculty (MDs and PhDs) for 1-2 years to conduct research that will serve as the basis for longer term research efforts on the biology of aging.The major goal of this program is to assist in the development of the careers of early career investigators committed to pursuing careers in aging research. Selected through a rigorous review process, with support from key funding partners, this year’s recipients are exploring a range of aging-related topics at research institutions nationwide:
- Jacob Brown, PhD*, Assistant Professor, Florida State University:
Are oxylipins a therapeutic target to improve recovery from disuse-atrophy during aging? - Ang Cui, PhD, Assistant Professor of Developmental Biology, Harvard Medical School:
Decoding cytokine-driven hematopoietic stem cell fate in aging - Madison Doolittle, PhD**, Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut Health Center:
Premature aging and residual senescence after injury resolution - Sija He, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Texas Health San Antonio
Investigating the Role of Brain Innate Immunity in Regulating Peripheral Aging - Huimin Zhang, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of California Riverside:
Elucidating the Role of HELIOS in Epigenetic Regulation of T Cell Aging and TFH Cell Differentiation - Meng Zhang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Scripps Research:
Exploring neuro-immune crosstalk with spatial multi-omics
*Underwritten partially by the Marion Esser Kaufmann Foundation
**Underwritten fully by the Hearst Foundations
Additional funders of the AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty include: AFAR Board of Directors, Anonymous, The James A. and Dorothy R. Brunn Foundation, The Charina Foundation, The Irene Diamond Fund, David W. Gore, Diana Jacobs Kalman, The Lowell F. Johnson Foundation, Irving Kahn Fund, Diane Nixon Fund, Sami Sagol, and The Irving S. Wright Endowment.
“A core grant program since AFAR's inception, the AFAR Grant for Junior Faculty provides flexible support at a critical juncture inan early career investigator’s career when research funding is most difficult to secure,” notes Stephanie Lederman, EdM, Executive Director of AFAR. “This grant has helped many promising scientists advance the field’s understanding the basic mechanisms of aging, building a foundation of knowledge that will help us all live healthier, longer."
Learn more about AFAR’s Grants for Junior Faculty program here.
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About AFAR - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research that is revolutionizing how we live healthier and longer. For more than four decades, AFAR has served as the field’s talent incubator, providing $225,316,000 to 4,539 investigators at premier research institutions to date—and growing. In 2025, AFAR expects to provide approximately $12,816,000 to 79 investigators through a range of programs. A trusted leader and strategist, AFAR also works with public and private funders to steer high quality grant programs and inter-disciplinary research networks. AFAR-funded researchers are finding that modifying basic cellular processes can delay—or even prevent—many chronic diseases, often at the same time. They are discovering that it is never too late—or too early—to improve health. This groundbreaking science is paving the way for innovative new therapies that promise to improve and extend our quality of life—at any age. Learn more at www.afar.org.