The 2012 Fondation Ipsen Longevity Prize Has Been Awarded to Prof. Linda Fried for Her Outstanding Work on the Frailty Syndrome

PARIS --(Business Wire)--

The 17^th annual Longevity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen has been awarded to Linda Fried (Columbia University, New York, USA), in recognition of her outstanding leadership in the domain of the frailty syndrome, by an international jury¹ led by Dr. George Martin (University of Washington, Seattle, USA). She received the €20,000 prize on November 14, 2012 at the Gerontology Society of America (GSA (News - Alert)) in San Diego, USA where she presented an outstanding lecture.

Linda Fried has given a whole new insight into the understanding of frailty in geriatrics. This concept actually marks the evolution of physiology with the ageing process. Such a syndrome clinically represents energy dysregulation, and physiologically marks the dysregulation of the complex adaptative system of the resilient organism. Energy dysregulation may underly the development of this dysregulation as well as being deeply involved in the vicious cycle of the clinical presentation. Her work on this topic has given a whole new insight in the understanding of frailty and resilience in ageing and has had a major impact in today's geriatrics.

Linda Fried received her medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. In 1985, she obtained her Master's degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and then went on to hold joint faculty appointments in the JHU School of Medicine, the School of Hygiene and Public Health, and the School of Nursing (Baltimore, USA). She also served as director or co-director of geriatric medicine and resarch centers aimed at studying the epidemiology of aging and the relationships between aging and health. In 2008, L. Fried moved to Columbia University, where she is now dean of the Mailman School of Public Health and a professor of epidemiology and medicine. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science.

About the Longevity Prize
Founded in 1996, the Longevity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen has been awarded to renowned specialists: Caleb E. Finch (Los Angeles, 1996), Vaino Kannisto (Lisboa, 1997), Roy L. Walford (Los Angeles, 1998), John Morley (St Louis,1999), Paul & Margret Baltes (Berlin, 2000), Justin Congdon (Aiken, 2001), George Martin (Seattle, 2002), James Vaupel (Rostock, 2003), Linda Partridge (London, 2004), Sir Michael Marmot (London, 2005), Cynthia Kenyon (San Francisco, 2006), David Barker (Southampton, 2007), Gerald McLearn (University Park, 2008), Jacques Vallin (Paris, 2009), Judith Campisi (Novato, 2010) and Tom Kirkwood (Newcastle, 2011).

About the Fondation Ipsen
Established in 1983 under the aegis of the Fondation de France, the mission of the Fondation Ipsen is to contribute to the development and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The long-standing action of the Fondation Ipsen aims at fostering the interaction between researchers and clinical practitioners, which is indispensable due to the extreme specialization of these professions. The ambition of the Fondation Ipsen is to initiate a reflection about the major scientific issues of the forthcoming years. It has developed an important international network of scientific experts who meet regularly at meetings known as Colloques Médecine et Recherche, dedicated to six main themes: Alzheimer's disease, neurosciences, longevity, endocrinology, the vascular system and cancer science. Moreover the Fondation Ipsen has started since 2007 several meetings in partnership with the Salk Institute, the Karolinska Institutet, the Massachusetts General Hospital, the Days of Molecular Medicine Global Foundation as well as with the science journals Nature, Cell and Science. The Fondation Ipsen produced several hundred publications; more than 250 scientists and biomedical researchers have been awarded prizes and research grants.

¹ In addition to George Martin, the jury was composed of Judith Campisi (Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, USA), James Carey (University of California, Davis, USA), Eileen Crimmins (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA), Caleb Finch (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA), Bernard Forette (Paris, France), Bernard Jeune (Odense University, Odense, Denmark), Jean-Pierre Michel (Hôpital Universitaire de Genève, Genève, Switzerland), Jean-Marie Robine (INSERM Centre Val d'Aurelle, Montpellier, France), Jacques Treton (Inserm U872, Paris, France) and Bruno Vellas (Centre Hospitalier Regional Toulouse, France)