Mayo researcher and Kogod Center member Tamara Pirtskhalava, Ph.D.; her husband, Givi; and Yuji Ikeno, M.D., Ph.D., University of Texas at San Antonio.

It was one of those meetings of the minds that happens too rarely. The physicians who see geriatric patients daily are convening with laboratory scientists who delve into the causes of conditions — in this case, frailty. The Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging held its first annual international research conference in mid-June. Experts from across the United States, as well as investigators from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, convened in Minnesota for three days of lectures, panel discussions and poster presentations.

“Aging is the number one risk factor for disease,” says James. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Kogod Center and organizer of the event. The assumption of everyone at the session is that aging should not necessarily be tied to chronic disease or illness. One can be frail, but healthy. Starting at the cellular level, this group of highly collaborative investigators want to discover what causes degeneration and then to slow or stop it.