Message from the Director
The most well known fact about aging is that people do it differently. What explains this variation? Are there actions we can take that will improve our chances of preventing disabling conditions that become more common with age, such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease? We already know that some aspects of life, such as emotion regulation, life satisfaction, and financial security, tend to get better with age. What other aspects of life improve with age?
In the future, genomic medicine will mean more personalized approaches for targeting medical interventions. Can we develop a personalized “health portfolio” that will map our “investments” in factors we know are important for healthy aging such as: nutrition, physical activity, family support, social connections, engagement in life, and the built environment? Different individuals would have different portfolio needs based on their genome and other characteristics such as culture, personality, gender and life stage.
How can we use the burgeoning scientific findings that researchers in aging are discovering to improve the lives of older adults and their families?
These are some of the questions that faculty in the Center for Healthy Aging Research are investigating. Our faculty includes many of Oregon State University’s finest scientists, who collaborate in the study of aging from differing perspectives and disciplines. I hope you will enjoy reading about them and their ground-breaking research in aging.
Karen Hooker
Director, Center for Healthy Aging Research
College of Health and Human Sciences
Oregon State University
321 Milam Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-5102
hookerk@oregonstate.edu
Dr. Hooker is a pre-eminent scholar in the aging sciences and has published extensively on personality, health behaviors, and mental and physical health related to aging. She is the founding director of the Center for Healthy Aging Research and Principal Investigator on the IGERT Program in Aging Sciences funded by the National Science Foundation.
