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It was Dr. Shock's insistence on answering what he considered the discipline's two critical questions that made an impact on the field of gerontology: "What are the underlying biological factors that produce what we perceive as aging?" and, "What are the mechanisms that produce impaired performance with age?" For aging, he insisted, was not a disease.

Nathan Wetherell Shock, Ph.D. began his gerontology career in 1941 as the chief of the newly formed Unit on Gerontology of the Division of Physiology of the five-year-old National Institute of Health. He took this two-man aging unit and built it into the internationally respected Gerontology Research Center of the National Institute on Aging, NIH. Dr. Shock was the catalyst for the emergence of aging research in the United States and overseas for nearly half a century.

The central focus of our research is understanding age-related changes in physiology and the ability to adapt to environmental stress. This understanding is then applied to developing insight about the pathophysiology of age-related diseases. The program seeks to understand the changes associated with healthy aging and to define the criteria for evaluating when a change becomes pathologic.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland. The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life. In 1974, Congress granted authority to form NIA to provide leadership in aging research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs relevant to aging and older people. Subsequent amendments to this legislation designated the NIA as the primary Federal agency on Alzheimer's disease research.

National Institute on AgingNIAUndertakes research on the biomedical, social, and behavioral aspects of the aging process, prevention of age-related diseases and disabilities, promotion of better quality of life for all older Americans.1974

KLRI differs from most research institutions because we have a wide range of scientific expertise and we focus on the overall effects of aging, rather than disease cures. Safety is also an important element to KLRI, as all studies are carefully performed and accurately communicated. Our scientists are experts in their fields and conscience driven to perform at their highest possible level.

KLRI is performing research to extend our healthy years by improving muscle strength, understanding the role of various nutritional components in our diets, and achieving a better grasp of human aging physiology.

Some international health care programs may be considered public-private partnerships:

Division of Aging Biology (DAB)Supports research and training to enhance and extend the human health span through a better understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying the aging process.  

Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology (DGCG)Supports research on health and disease in the aged and research on aging over the human lifespan, including its relationships to health outcomes.

Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director and a co-founder of the Gerontology Research Group in Los Angeles. He is a stem-cell researcher in the Department of Surgery at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. In addition, he has organized a lecture series in gerontology for the past 12 years.

Dr. Steven Kaye, M.D., and I co-founded the GRG during the spring of 1990. We met once a month for about six months in each other’s homes and along the way wrote a Charter, or Mission Statement, for the group, describing what we wanted to see done in our lifetimes in the field of Anti-Aging Medicine.

in January of 1991, was our first formal lecture, and since then we have had at least one lecture per month for the past 12 years (including Summers) — 154 lectures and still going strong! In retrospect, our presenters have included world-famous researchers in gerontology. We videotaped each lecture and now have an extensive library of VHS tapes.