Gladstone Institutes receives National Recognition for Excellence in postdoc programs. Postdoctoral researchers are central to Gladstone's scientific mission, helping drive discoveries that advance the understanding and treatment of disease. Gladstone Institutes has been selected as one of 12 institutions nationwide to receive an Institutional Policy Award from the National Postdoctoral Association's new Excellence Recognition Program. The honor highlights Gladstone's strong alignment with the association's rigorous recommended policies and practices for supporting postdoctoral scholars through mentorship, professional development, workplace policies, and career advancement. "At Gladstone, we recognize that our postdoctoral scholars are primary engines of scientific advancement," says Deepak Srivastava, MD, president of Gladstone Institutes. "They are pushing the boundaries of what's possible and turning ambitious hypotheses into life-saving discoveries. Their success is, quite literally, Gladstone's success." Indeed, postdoctoral researchers are central to Gladstone's scientific mission, helping drive discoveries that advance the understanding and treatment of disease. Gladstone trains well over 100 postdoctoral scholars annually, with support spanning every stage of the training experience. Through its Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Education and Research Development Affairs office, Gladstone provides extensive professional development training, individualized career counseling, leadership development, grant and manuscript writing support, and career exploration resources. Postdoctoral scholars also benefit from structured mentoring practices, including annual individual development plans, mentor and mentee standards, and opportunities to build strong professional networks across the organization. Gladstone supports more than 100 postdoctoral scholars each year with mentorship, professional development, and career resources that help prepare the next generation of scientific leaders. "Our commitment to postdocs goes far beyond simply providing research training," says Sudha Krishnamurthy, PhD, director of Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Education and Research Development Affairs at Gladstone. "We aim to develop the whole scientist - ensuring they have the technical rigor, leadership skills, and mentorship network necessary to become the next generation of global leaders in biomedicine." Gladstone's postdocs go on to become research investigators, educators, life science industry professionals, government workers, and more, Krishnamurthy adds. The policies and programs at Gladstone recognized by the National Postdoctoral Association include transparent compensation practices, comprehensive employee benefits, dedicated services for international scholars, and resources that support mental health and well-being. "Improving the postdoctoral experience is a community effort," says Erin Heckler, PhD, vice chair of the National Postdoctoral Association's board of directors. "The NPA, recognizing the work of these institutions as examples of policies and practices, shares what progress is possible for everyone." The Institutional Policy Award acknowledges Gladstone's efforts to create a training environment where early-career scientists can develop the skills, experience, and professional networks needed to make impactful discoveries and become future leaders in biomedical research. For Media Julie Langelier Associate Director, Communications 415.734.5000 Email About Gladstone Institutes Gladstone Institutes is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. Established in 1979, it is located in the epicenter of biomedical and technological innovation, in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. Gladstone has created a research model that disrupts how science is done, funds big ideas, and attracts the brightest minds.

Can AI help us age better? Bay Area scientists are trying to find out. By Panashe Matemba-Mutasa, The Mercury News The Tribune Content Agency June 17, 2026 12:57 PM Gift Article A growing number of researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to understand why some people remain healthy into their 90s while others develop chronic diseases decades earlier. At labs throughout the Bay Area, the technology is fueling a wave of longevity research aimed at measuring how long people live - and how well they age. Researchers say AI can uncover early signs of age-related diseases, predict an individual's biological age and identify factors contributing to healthier lives - all by sifting through vast amounts of data to find patterns nearly impossible for humans to detect. The tools are still being refined. But scientists believe they could accelerate discoveries to improve health and independence into older adulthood. The most ambitious applications of AI in aging research, including speeding drug development and testing, remain years away, experts said. Researchers must also navigate bias within systems trained on data that may not reflect the full diversity of the population. Still, patients are already seeing some benefits, such as AI-assisted scan readings that can reduce the odds of false positives. "We're already seeing the benefits," said Nathan Price, chief scientist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato. Any discovery won't be an anti-aging silver bullet. Social, behavioral and structural factors - including whether patients can access or choose to use those treatments - will play an equally important role, said Angie Perone, the director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at UC Berkeley. "This is only one piece of an important puzzle," Perone said. Predicting how cells age. Scientists at Gladstone Institutes, based in San Francisco, recently launched an AI model to predict how human cells evolve with age. Trained on millions of cells, the model attempts to map the trajectory of aging, allowing researchers to forecast how cells might change and identify potential drivers of age-related decline. That marks a shift from earlier approaches, which largely compared snapshots of "young" and "old" cells. Instead, the model, developed by scientists led by physician-scientist Christina Theodoris, treats aging as a continuous process that can be learned and predicted. The team also tested some of the model's predictions in biological systems, identifying genes expected to accelerate aging and validating those effects in human heart cells and in mice. That kind of experimental follow-up is essential, experts say, though the research remains in early stages. "The real test will be whether these predictions hold up across many tissues and disease contexts," said Hani Goodarzi, a core investigator at Palo Alto-based Arc Institute, noting current tools, including animal models, are imperfect benchmarks. Significant hurdles remain. The model will require large-scale datasets that track how cells respond to drugs and genetic changes, along with validation across a wider range of tissues and diseases. And even the most accurate predictions must ultimately be translated into real-world therapies. Searching for hidden patterns. At the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, scientists are using artificial intelligence to figure out how to help people stay healthier for longer. One of the institute's AI projects integrates individual genetic information, clinical lab results, microbiome data and other health measurements. Drawing on a database containing thousands of biological measurements from research participants, the system identifies patterns and generates personalized insights about health risks and interventions. "The microbiome is highly predictive of who will lose weight," Price said, noting that AI can uncover connections hidden within vast datasets. Users can interact with the platform through a chatbot-like interface that generates graphs, health scores and detailed analyses of their data. They expect the tool to be released to the public by the end of the year. It is part of Healthspan Horizons, a large-scale research initiative supported by a $52 million grant that aims to enroll thousands of participants and better understand the biology of aging on an individual level. Detecting disease earlier. Artificial intelligence is also reshaping the way researchers study Alzheimer's disease by shifting the focus from symptoms to the biological changes occurring inside the brain. Rather than relying primarily on memory loss and other cognitive symptoms, AI is helping scientists analyze complex brain scans and other data to identify those changes earlier and more objectively. "The way we see Alzheimer's has shifted from seeing it as a clinical cognitive syndrome to a more biological disease," said Duygu Tosun-Turgut, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at UC San Francisco and founding director of Medical Imaging Informatics and Artificial Intelligence at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. That capability is particularly valuable for clinical trials. Before, researchers sometimes enrolled patients whose symptoms resembled Alzheimer's but were caused by other conditions, making it harder to determine whether experimental treatments were effective. AI can help identify people with the disease's true biological signatures, improving both patient selection and trial outcomes. Beyond research, Turgut believes AI could improve access to dementia screening and diagnosis, particularly in underserved communities. Specialized memory clinics remain scarce in many parts of the country, and studies have shown that dementia is often underdiagnosed among people with lower socioeconomic status. "Hopefully, we can develop tools that are cheap and scalable enough to be distributed to every geographic spot in the world," she said. Still, she and other researchers cautioned that AI systems are only as good as the data used to train them. Many research cohorts are disproportionately composed of highly educated participants and may not reflect the demographic diversity of the broader population. And so the promise of AI hinges on a hurdle researchers have yet to fully overcome: bias. Until these systems can consistently produce accurate, equitable results across diverse populations, human oversight remains essential. Still, scientists and startups are betting that AI will play an increasingly central role in unraveling the biology of aging, and, perhaps one day, extending healthy years of life.