Ricki Colman

My laboratory utilizes nonhuman primate models to explore the impact of nutrition and metabolism on health across the aging continuum. I have developed and standardized techniques required to fully elucidate aging and metabolic function in nonhuman primates such as detailed assessments of body composition, glucoregulatory function, energy expenditure, physical activity, frailty, inflammation, and age- related changes in reproductive hormones. Most of my research has focused on later life time points and the ability of caloric restriction to modulate the aging process, but I have recently begun to explore the impact of nutrition on early life growth and development. Caloric restriction has a strong positive impact on diabetes development and lifespan in rodents. Our driving hypothesis is that caloric restriction induces an altered state of energy metabolism that promotes health and longevity in primates as well. While my caloric restriction and aging research has been primarily in macaques, I have recently begun to use common marmosets to explore the relationships between nutrition and development, and to develop a shorter-lived primate aging model.