He’ll try to unravel an Nrf1 riddle

A Carleton student has won a research fellowship to explore the mysteries of aging with some of the world’s top experts.

PhD biology student Nikolai Chepelev leaves this weekend for a month at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, thanks to a $2,500 grant from the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Chepelev studies the role a protein called Nrf1 plays in aging.

“No one knows why proteins like Nrf1 fail to function properly as we age or get sick,” Chepelev said. “If we did figure this out, it would be a huge scientific discovery.”