Chronological List of References from the Science of Aging Timeline

Gompertz, B. 1825. On the nature of the function expressive of the law of human mortality, and on the mode of determining the value of life contingencies. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 115:513-585.

- 1892
(01, January)

August Weismann Proposes a Difference Between Germ Line and Somatic Cells

August Weismann. The Germ Plasm: A theory of heredity. Charles Scribners Sons, 1892.

- 1934
(01, November)

Clive McCay Discovers that Calorie Restriction Extends Life-Span in Rats

McCay, C. M.; Crowell, Mary F. Prolonging the Life Span. The Scientific Monthly, 1934, Volume 39, Issue 5, pp. 405-414

- 1952
(01, January)

Peter Medawar proposes that aging evolved into existence since the force of natural selection diminishes after reproduction

P. B. Medawar, An Unsolved Problem in Biology. H. K. Lewis, London, 1952.

- 1956
(1, July)

Denham Harman proposes the free radical theory of aging

Harman, D. Aging: a theory based on free radical and radiation chemistry. J Gerontol. 1956 Jul;11(3):298-300.
Harman, D. Aging: a theory based on free radical and radiation chemistry. J Gerontol. 1956 Jul;11(3):298-300.
Florian L. Mullera, Michael S. Lustgartenb, Youngmok Janga, Arlan Richardsona,Holly Van Remmen. Trends in oxidative aging theories. Free Radical Biology and Medicine Volume 43, Issue 4, 15 August 2007, Pages 477-503
Gruber J, Schaffer S, Halliwell B. The mitochondrial free radical theory of ageing--where do we stand? Front Biosci. 2008 May 1;13:6554-79.

- 1957
(26, February)

George C. Williams expands on the theory of antagonistic pleiotropy

Williams, G. C. Pleiotropy, Natural Selection, and the Evolution of Senescence. Society for the Study of Evolution. 1957

- 1961
(15, May)

Hayflick and Moorhead Characterize Cellular Senescence in Primary Human Cells

Hayflick, L., Moorhead, P.S. The Serial Cultivation of Human Diploid Cell Strains. Experimental Cell Research, 1961, Dec;25:585-621

- 1963
(15, February)

Leslie Orgel Proposes the "Error Catastrophe" Theory of Aging

Orgel, LE. The maintenance of the accuracy of protein synthesis and its relevance to ageing. PNAS 49:517-21 (1963)

- 1965
(01, March)

Leonard Hayflick proposes the Cellular Theory of Aging based on the limited replicative lifespan of primary human cells

Hayflick, L.. The limited in vitro lifetime of human diploid cell strains. 1965
Campisi, J. Senescent Cells, Tumor Suppression, and Organismal Aging: Good Citizens, Bad Neighbors. 2005
Hayflick, L.., Moorhead, P.S. The Serial Cultivation of Human Diploid Cell Strains. Experimental Cell Research, 1961, Dec;25:585-621.

- 1970
(19, September)

David and Harriet Gershon Find Accumulation of Non-active Enzymes in Older Nematodes

H. Gershon, D. Gershon, Detection of Inactive Enzyme Molecules in Ageing Organisms. Nature 227, 1214-1217 (1970)

- 1982
(12, March)

Richard Weindruch finds that adult mice on dietary restriction live 20% longer and have lower cancer rates

Weindruch, R. Walford, R. Dietary Restriction in Mice Beginning at 1 Year of Age: Effect on Life-Span and Spontaneous Cancer Incidence. Science, Vol 215 (4538), 1415-1418 (1982)

- 1983
(15, November)

Anthony Cerami proposes the Maillard Reaction theory of aging stating that DNA accumulates damage due to nonenzymatic modification from sugars

R Bucala, P Model, A Cerami. Modification of DNA by reducing sugars: A possible mechanism for nucleic acid aging and age-related dysfunction in gene expression. PNAS, 1984.

- 1984
(02, February)

Michael R. Rose asserts that senescence can be postponed by natural selection

M.R. Rose. 1984. The evolution of animal senescence. Can. J. Zool. 62: 1661-1667

- 1985
(01, December)

Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth H. Blackburn Discover A Specific Telomere Terminal Transferase Later Known as Telomerase

CW Greider, EH Blackburn. Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts. Cell. 1985 Dec;43(2 Pt 1):405-13
Shampey, J., Szostak, J. W., and Blackburn, E. H. DNA sequences of telomeres maintained in yeast. Nature 310, 154-157, 1984

- 1986
(01, January)

Robert M. Sapolsky, Lewis C. Krey, and Bruce S. McEwen Propose the Glucocorticoid Cascade Hypothesis of Aging

Sapolsky RM, Krey LC, McEwen BS. The neuroendocrinology of stress and aging: the glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis. Endocr Rev. 1986 Aug;7(3):284-301.

- 1988
(05, February)

Thomas Johnson and David Friedman Define the AGE-1 gene

Friedman, D.B, Johnson, T.E. Three Mutants That Extend Both Mean and Maximum Life Span of the Nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, Define the age-1 Gene. J. Gerontol. 43, B102-B109 (1988).

- 1990
(07, September)

Samuel Goldstein proposes that the activation of specific genes is the cause of cellular aging

Goldstein, S. Replicative senescence: the human fibroblast comes of age. Science 249, 1129–1133 (1990).

- 1993
(15, September)

Cynthia Kenyon finds that mutations in daf-2 and daf-16 genes cause C. elegans worms to live over twice as long

Cynthia Kenyon, Jean Chang, Erin Gensch , Adam Rudner, and Ramon Tabtiang. A C. elegans mutant that lives twice as long as wild type. Nature 366(6454), 461-464 (1993)

- 1994
(01, December)

Brian K. Kennedy et al. Discover that the Daughter Cells of Old Yeast have Shorter Life-Spans than those of Younger Strains

Kennedy, B.K., Austriaco, N.R., Jr., and Guarente, L. (1994). Daughter cells of S. cerevisiae from old mothers display a reduced life span. J. Cell Biol., 137 1985-1993
Guarente, L. Ageless Quest: One Scientists Search for Genes That Prolong Youth New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2003.

- 1995
(10, February)

Brian K. Kennedy et al. Find that SIR4-42 Extends the Life Span of Yeast by 30% and May Play a Key Role in Regulating Aging

Kennedy, B., Austriaco, N., Zhang, J., and Guarente, L. (1995). Mutation in the silencing gene SIR4 can delay aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cell, 80, 485-496

- 1997
(04, August)

Daniel E. Martìnez finds that Hydra do not show signs of Biological Aging

Martinez, D.E. (May 1998), "Mortality patterns suggest lack of senescence in hydra.", Experimental Gerontology 33 (3): 217-225
http://www.biology.pomona.edu/people/faculty/martinez.shtml

- 1998
(16, January)

Andrea Bodnar, Michel Ouellette, et al. Find An Extension of Human Cell Life-Span with the Introduction of Telomerase

Bodnar, A.G., Ouellette, M., Frolkis, M. et al. Extension of Life-Span by Introduction of Telomerase into Normal Human Cells. Science, 279, 349-352. 1998

- 2003
(17, July)

Coleen Murphy et al. find genes downstream of daf-16 which regulate aging in C.elegans nematodes

Coleen T. Murphy, Steven A. McCarroll, Cornelia I. Bargmann, Andrew Fraser, Ravi S. Kamath, Julie Ahringer, Hao Li, Cynthia Kenyon. Genes that act downstream of DAF-16 to influence the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature 424, 277-283 (17 July 2003) | doi:10.1038

- 2003
(24, August)

David A. Sinclair et al. Discover Three Classes of Molecules that Activate Sirtuins (Including Resveratrol)

Howitz KT, Bitterman KJ, Cohen HY, Lamming DW, Lavu S, Wood JG, Zipkin RE, Chung P, Kisielewski A, Zhang LL, Scherer B, Sinclair DA. Small molecule activators of sirtuins extend Saccharomyces cerevisiae lifespan. 2003, Nature 425 (6954): 191–196.

- 2004
(01, November)

Norman E. Sharpless finds that expression of the Ink4a/Arf locus is a biomarker of aging

Krishnamurthy J, Torrice C, Ramsey MR, Kovalev GI, Al-Regaiey K, Su L, Sharpless NE. Ink4a/Arf expression is a biomarker of aging. J Clin Invest. 2004 Nov;114(9):1299-307.

- 2004
(01, January)

Norman Sharpless and Ronald Pinho Propose the Stem-Cell Theory of Aging

Sharpless N.E., DePinho, R. A. Telomeres, stem cells, senescence, and cancer. J. Clin. Invest. 113:160–168 (2004). doi:10.1172/JCI200420761.
Chang, S., Khoo, C.M., Naylor, M.L., Maser, R.S., and DePinho, R.A. 2003. Telomere-based crisis: functional differences between telomerase activation and ALT in tumor progression. Genes Dev. 17:88–100.
Metcalfe, J.A., et al. 1996. Accelerated telomere shortening in ataxia telangiectasia. Nat. Genet. 13:350–353.
Hastie, N.D., et al. 1990. Telomere reduction in human colorectal carcinoma and with ageing. Nature. 346:866–868.

- 2005
(18, November)

Matt Kaeberlein et al. propose that the TOR and Sch9 kinases regulate longevity in yeast

Kaeberlein, M., Powers, R. W., 3rd, Steffen, K. K., Westman, E. A., Hu, D., Dang, N., Kerr, E. O., Kirkland, K. T., Fields, S., and Kennedy, B. K. (2005). Regulation of yeast replicative life span by TOR and Sch9 in response to nutrients. Science 310, 1193-1196.

- 2006
(24, July)

Andrea Bodnar Finds a Lack of Age-Associated Telomere Shortening in Long and Short Lived Sea Urchins

N. Francis, T. Gregg, R. Owen, T. Ebert, A. Bodnar. Lack of age-associated telomere shortening in long- and short-lived species of sea urchins. FEBS Letters, Volume 580, Issue 19, Pages 4713-4717