Collin Ewald

Biography

2011 Ph.D., Neuroscience, City University of New York, USA 2008 M.Phil., Biology, City University of New York, USA 2007 M.Sc., Molecular Biology, University of Basel, Switzerland 2005 B.Sc., Molecular Biology, University of Basel, Switzerland 2001 Matura, Mathematics, Gymnasium am Kirschgarten, Basel, Switzerland 1999 Student Exchange, Eldorado High School, Las Vegas, USA

Research Interest

Global Challenge: Age-dependent diseases By 2030 almost every fourth person will be 65 or older in Switzerland, Europe, and USA. Since old age is the main risk factor for developing cancer, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as other age-related pathologies, the growing elderly population poses an immense social and financial challenge. Strategic Goal: To identify novel strategies to improve human healthspan. Using C. elegans as a pioneering system to model the aging process because of its ease for genetic manipulation, high evolutionary conservation of genes implicated in human diseases, and short lifespan (3 weeks). Importantly, using C. elegans lifespan assays as a read-out for extension of healthspan is a tractable and fast approach for discovering novel mechanisms that confer healthy aging. Several fundamental mechanisms discovered in C. elegans have been shown to delay age-related pathologies in higher organisms, such as mice, and these mechanisms have major implications for humans aging. Hence, by using C. elegans to model the aging process we could rapidly identify strategies to improve human healthspan.