Christiaan Leeuwenburgh

Christiaan Leeuwenburgh, PhD, is Professor & Chief of the Division Of Biology Of Aging in the MD-AGING/GERIATRIC RES-OTHER Department at University of Florida. Christiaan focuses on aging, oxidative stress and apoptosis. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne in 1995 where his doctoral work focused on the regulation of glutathione homeostasis during chronic glutathione deficiencies and/or supplementation. He completed postdoctoral studies in Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology and Division of Atherosclerosis, Nutrition and Lipid Research at Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis. He became an Assistant Professor in 1998 at the University of Florida and the Director of the Biochemistry of Aging Laboratory. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002, Professor in 2007. In 2005 he joined the newly created Department of Aging and Geriatric Research, College of Medicine and Institute on Aging at the University of Florida. He is the Chief of the Division of Biology of Aging for the Department. Dr. Leeuwenburgh has joint faculty appointments in the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the department’s doctoral research faculty of the College of Medicine. Dr. Leeuwenburgh’s major research focus is to understand the molecular mechanism of oxidative stress and apoptosis with age in rodent models. The biochemistry of aging laboratory utilizes several animal models of aging. He is conducting research on the role of apoptosis in the loss of human skeletal muscle with age and it’s role in human frailty. He has participated in NIH workshops focused on the biology of aging and geriatric research of the National Institute on Aging. He has published papers in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Journal of Physiology and Science. He reviews regularly for numerous journals including American Journal of Physiology, Experimental Gerontology, Biogerontology, and the Journal of Gerontology and is a section editor for the Journal of Experimental Gerontology. In 2004 he received the Nathan Shock Award from the National Institute on Aging. He received the Merck Geriatric Cardiology Research Award from the Society of Geriatric Cardiology in 1999; the National Research Service Award of the NIH from the National Institute on Aging in 1997 and 1998; a Young Investigator Award from the Oxygen Society in 1996; and held an American Heart Association Pre-doctoral Fellowship from the Illinois Affiliate from 1993 through 1995. His work on assessment of oxidative damage in aging and apoptosis has been increasingly recognized and appreciated by gerontologists worldwide.