IJMS | Free Full-Text | Accelerated Aging in Cancer Survivors: Cellular Senescence, Frailty, and Possible Opportunities for Interventions

Dr. Najla El-Jurdi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Division of Hematology, Oncology, at […]

Dr. Najla El-Jurdi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation at the University of Minnesota. She received her Bachelor’s and MD degrees at the American University of Beirut. Her research focuses on improving our patients’ post-transplant toxicities, outcomes, and long-term effects. She is interested in studying means of manipulating the microbiome and its peptides in mitigating graft versus host disease and other transplant toxicities. She is also a member of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation, the American Society of Hematology, the Society of Hematologic Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Cancer Research.

Dr. Bharat Thyagarajan is director of the Division of Molecular Pathology and Genomics and director […]

Dr. Bharat Thyagarajan is director of the Division of Molecular Pathology and Genomics and director of the Advanced Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ARDL). He received his MD degree at the Grant Medical College in 1998 and completed his PhD studies in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in 2004. He is the principal laboratory investigator at ARDL for the Hispanic Community Health Study, an NIH-funded multicenter epidemiologic study of Hispanic/Latino populations, and the NIH-funded Long Life Family Study, an international collaborative study of the genetics and familial components of exceptional survival, longevity, and healthy aging. His research program focuses on the role of mitochondria in breast and colorectal cancer.

Dr. Anna Prizment is a cancer epidemiologist and an Associate Professor at the University of Medical […]

Dr. Anna Prizment is a cancer epidemiologist and an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She obtained her Master’s degree in Chemistry at Moscow State University (MSU). She received her Master’s and PhD degrees in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in 2006 and 2010, respectively. She studies cancer prevention and survival of cancer patients, with her research focused on the role of inflammation and immune response, as measured by circulating and tissue biomarkers, genetic alterations, and gut microbiome, in gastrointestinal cancers. Recently, Dr. Prizment has expanded her research to study aging processes in relation to cancer risk and outcomes including mortality, frailty and dementia in cancer survivors. In her NCI-funded studies, biological aging is assessed via different aging measures—proteomic and epigenetic aging clocks, and constructs based on clinical biomarkers.

Dr. Anne H Blaes is the Division Director and a Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology […]

Dr. Anne H Blaes is the Division Director and a Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Minnesota. She is the Director of Cancer Survivorship Services and Translational Research at the Masonic Cancer Center. Her research interests, funded by a BIRCWH award, include quality of life, cardiac complications of chemotherapy, and the late effects of cancer therapy in cancer survivors, particularly breast and colorectal cancer survivors. In addition to mentoring medical students and residents on research projects, she teaches the Blood Pathophysiology course and the Human Diseases IV course within the medical school. She received an Educational Excellence Award from the Department of Medicine in 2010 and has been named in Minnesota Monthly’s Best Doctors for Women in 2011 and 2012. She is the Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Cancer Survivorship Committee, a member of the Executive Board of the Global Cardio-oncology Society, an associate editor for JACC Cardio-oncology, a section editor for Hem/Onc Today on Survivorship and an active member of the ALLIANCE for Cancer Clinical Trials.