Alexander Kulminski
My major research interests stem from my desire to understand determinants of long and healthy life. My current research focuses on genetic and non-genetic factors influencing health, aging, and life span emphasizing the life course approach and specific properties of phenotypes that make our bodies vulnerable to diseases in late, i.e., post-reproductive, life. The original training and fifteen-year experience in the fields of physics and mathematics and fifteen-year experience in aging, health, and longevity research prepared me as multi- and interdisciplinary researcher.
I used this expertise to examine the role of systemic processes in an aging organism characterized by a composite measure, called an index of cumulative deficits or deficit index, in health, well-being and survival. These studies showed that the deficit index is a robust marker of human health, biological age, and survival chances. Most recently, I was engaged in the development and implementation of an innovative concept of the life course genetics in association studies. This concept is motivated by experimental evidences from genetics, gerontology, demography, and epidemiology, among the other disciplines, and by evolutionary theory. The results of my research show that the life-course approach in genetics of age-related traits is critical for our understanding of genetic origin of health span and life span, and for translation of genetic discoveries to health care.
