PROFESSOR TOM KIRKWOOD
Professor of Medicine, University of Newcastle-upon- Tyne
Head of Department of Gerontology

Cellular Ageing

Tom Kirkwood has been, since 1999, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Gerontology in the Institute for Ageing and Health at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He worked at the UK National Institute for Medical Research from 1981 until 1993, when he became Britain’s first Professor of Biological Gerontology at the University of Manchester. He has been Chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing, Governor and Chair of the Research Advisory Council of the medical research charity Research into Ageing and Chair of the UK Foresight Task Force on ‘Health Care of Older People’. He is on the editorial boards of several academic journals, European Editor of Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, has served on various national grants committees (e.g. Wellcome Trust, MRC) and is currently a Council Member of the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). He is author of the award-winning popular science book Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Ageing, and of Chance, Development and Ageing, coauthored with leading US gerontologist Caleb Finch. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 2001 on the theme ‘The End of Age’ (also published as a book of the same title).

Tom Kirkwood has been actively involved in ageing research since 1975. His work on the disposable soma theory, first proposed in 1977, provides an evolutionary explanation of ageing that makes testable predictions about cell and molecular mechanisms. The current focus of his research group is on testing these ideas, particularly the role of cell stress response and maintenance systems in ageing and longevity. The group also has a core interest in modelling the complex molecular mechanisms that contribute to ageing and has pioneered bioinformatics (e-science) approaches for studying these mechanisms by developing ‘virtual’ ageing cells and tissues.