ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Mayo Clinic research project on aging will be carried to the International Space Station in a launch Wednesday. James Kirkland. director of Mayo Clinic’s Aging Center, said the project will attempt to measure the effects of weightlessness on the process in which human cells age and stop dividing. In the process, called “senescence,” cells don’t die but leave built-up tissue throughout the body. The process is associated with frailty and multiple diseases. The project aims to extend the years that people can live free and independently, and without pain and disability, he said.
Kirkland. Mayo regenerative disease researcher.