{"id":2013,"date":"2011-03-31T14:46:31","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T18:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:51:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:51:51","slug":"carleton-biology-student-works-with-world-experts-on-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/2011\/carleton-biology-student-works-with-world-experts-on-aging\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Biology Student works with world experts on aging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Carleton Biology Student works with world experts on aging\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Byline: Jessica Cunha<br>\nPublication: YourOttawaRegion.com<br>\nDate: Wednesday March 16th, 2011<br>\nSource: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yourottawaregion.com\/news\/local\/article\/967553--kanata-resident-works-with-world-experts-on-aging\">http:\/\/www.yourottawaregion.com\/news\/local\/article\/967553&#8211;kanata-resident-works-with-world-experts-on-aging<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kanata resident works with world experts on aging. Nikolai Chepelev, a Kanata resident and PhD biology student at Carleton University will spend a month at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology working with some of the top world experts on the aging process. <em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&nbsp;<\/em>It might not be the fountain of youth but a Kanata resident has been selected to study a protein that could help with the aging process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Nikolai Chepelev, a PhD candidate in biology at Carleton University, left on March 5 for a month to study a protein called Nrf1, which could potentially be a vital player in the aging process and a defence against disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;He is working at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology with some of the world\u2019s top experts on aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cI am certain that I will not uncover the fountain of youth over such a short time period,\u201d wrote Chepelev in an email. \u201cHowever, that could be a good starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the first step is to determine is the protein is actually important in aging and age-related diseases, while the second is to learn how scientists can use Nrf1 to achieve healthier aging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cTypically, it takes about 10 years from the point when a protein is found important in human health to the appearance of some chemicals (prototypical drugs) that would undergo clinical trials,\u201d said Chepelev, who was awarded a $2,500 research fellowship by the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine to study at the southern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The PhD candidate has been studying the protein for close to five years as part of his thesis. He said he\u2019d like to continue his work on the protein once his thesis is completed, and hopes other scientists are drawn to the understudied Nrf1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cWhen we have more scientific teams working on the same protein, we have better chance to achieve positive results to solve real problems,\u201d said Chepelev, who also won a Young Investigator Award for his work on Nrf1 and a travel award for his presentation at the sixth Canadian Oxidative Stress Consortium in Manitoba in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&#8220;No one knows why proteins like Nrf1 fail to function properly as we age or get sick. If we did figure this out, it would be a huge scientific discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Chepelev\u2019s supervisor at the university, Bill Willmore, said the student\u2019s work could help find answers to problems associated with multiple diseases, such as cancer chemoprevention and cardiovascular diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cNikolai\u2019s work could lead to breakthroughs in a healthier aging process and find solutions to real-world problems,\u201d said Willmore, an associate professor at Carleton in the Institute of Biochemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Chepelev said he\u2019s very grateful for the opportunity given to him to study at the Davis School of Gerontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cThis opportunity means a lot to me. First, it shows me that my research is taken very seriously by the top experts in the field of free radical biology and medicine. Secondly, it would help me to gain a different experience from a very prestigious lab.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"mailto:jessica.cunha@metro\">jessica.cunha@metro<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Byline: Jessica Cunha Publication: YourOttawaRegion.com Date: Wednesday March 16th, 2011 Source: http:\/\/www.yourottawaregion.com\/news\/local\/article\/967553&#8211;kanata-resident-works-with-world-experts-on-aging &nbsp;Summary Kanata resident works with world experts on aging. Nikolai Chepelev, a Kanata resident and PhD biology student at Carleton University will spend a month at the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology working with some of the top world experts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}