Prof Lynne Cox

I am a biogerontologist and run the Lab of Ageing and Cell Senescence at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, and I am the George Moody Fellow and Tutor in Biochemistry at Oriel College, Oxford. My lab researches the biological processes underlying ageing, with a particular focus on human premature ageing syndromes and cell senescence, a process whereby normal body cells change to a harmful state that contributes to diseases associated with ageing. We are using that core information to identify and test possible new treatments with the aim of improving health in later life. Our work is funded through UKRI (BBSRC, MRC), Research England (UK SPINE), Public Health England (now UK Health Security Agency), Diabetes UK/BIRAX and philanthropic support from the Mellon Longevity Science Programme at Oriel College, Oxford. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and recipient of the US Glenn Foundation Award for research into the biological mechanisms of ageing, presented at the House of Lords.

I serve on the Clinical and Translational Theme panel of the Biochemical Society, the MRC Ageing Research Steering Group, and the strategic advisory board of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity, in which role I co-authored the APPG’s National strategy report on “Health of the Nation – a strategy of healthier longer lives” launched by the Secretary of State of Health and Social Care in 2020. Internationally, I am a primary international member of Norwegian Centre for Healthy Ageing Network NO-Age, co-chair of the Special Interest Group in Ageing Biology of the European Geriatric Medicine Society and I am a co-director of the UKRI-funded UK Ageing Networks (https://www.ukanet.org.uk/). I have recently been appointed as Programme Director of the new Wellcome Leap programme on Ageing and Multimorbidity.