Animal Models for Social Dimensions of Health and Aging Network

Check out our first 2026-2027 award spotlight below, which features Dr. Daniella Chusyd (IU-Bloomington) and her project on early-life adversity in African savanna elephants. Stay tuned for more spotlights to come! @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social

Announcing the winners of our Pilot & Feasibility awards and the Bruce McEwen Career Development Fellowship for 2026-2027! Check out the graphics below to learn more about these scientists, and visit our website to learn more about their science. www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/

Thanks to everyone who viewed, shared, and submitted to our RFAs for our 2026-2027 Pilot & Feasibility Awards and Bruce McEwen Fellowship. So much incredible science related to the social determinants of aging! Stay tuned to learn more about the winners and their research!

Thanks to all who submitted their proposals for our Pilot & Feasibility awards and McEwen fellowships. We look forward to learning more about you and your science. We will be in touch with each of you with funding decisions in the coming weeks! @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social

One more week to apply for the Bruce McEwen Fellowship! Up to $6,000 in individual funding for early-career scientists whose research includes animal models or comparative approaches to study the social determinants of aging! Apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/fell...

📣 One more week to apply! The application window for our Pilot & Feasibility awards closes on June 30. Check out the full RFA below and get your application submitted! www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/pilo... @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social

Don't forget! We're accepting applications for our Pilot & Feasibility awards and the McEwen Fellowship until June 30. If you have a project relevant to Network science, check out our website for more information! @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social

Have a project related to animal models to study social aging? We welcome applications from early-career scientists for both our Pilot & Feasibility awards and the Bruce McEwen Fellowship. Applications are open until June 30. See details and apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding

📣Our Research Network's 2026-2027 RFA cycle are now open!📣 Applications for our Pilot & Feasibility awards (up to $20,000) and the McEwen Fellowship (up to $6,000) for early-career scientists are open through June 30. Ready to apply? Click here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding

Can't wait for our individual RFAs to open this summer? We now offer Small/Working Group Meeting grants on a rolling basis! If you have an idea for a meeting topic relevant to network interests, click the link below for more information!

🎉Huge congratulations to McEwen fellow @ewinternelson.bsky.social and Dr. Gagan Wig of UT Dallas on their recent publication in PNAS on large-scale brain network decline across aging mice and humans and its translational relevance. Read the paper here: shorturl.at/gjau5

The second of two 2026 Network-the-networks meetings concluded successfully at the University of Minnesota earlier this week. We are so grateful for all who attended and look forward to the collaborations that will no doubt result between invited network representatives!

Our first of two Network-the-networks meeting was recently organized and conducted at Arizona State University by @smacklab.bsky.social. Thanks to all representatives of fellow networks who participated with the aim to "diversify the animal taxa used in the study of social determinants of aging"!

Approximately 39% of US adults met criteria for metabolic syndrome in 2023, with persistent disparities by age and race highlighting the need for ongoing preventive efforts. ja.ma/4jXfqCV

🔦✨ Research Network Spotlight!✨🔦 Dr. Frank Raven, postdoctoral research fellow in the lab of Dr. Sara Aton at University of Michigan, is the second awardee of a 2025-2026 Bruce McEwen Fellowship through our Research Network. Check out a description of Dr. Raven's project below!

🔦✨ Research Network Spotlight!✨🔦 Sabrina Mederos, PhD candidate at UC Davis, is one of two 2025-2026 Bruce McEwen Fellowship awardees through our Research Network. Check out a description of Sabrina's research below. @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social

Did you know that we offer funding opportunities for small/working group meetings in areas-of-interest to our Network? Want to meet with like-minded scientists to workshop the social determinants of health and aging? Accepting applications now! www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/smal...

✨🔦Research Network Spotlight!🔦✨ @ctestard.bsky.social at Harvard University is the second recipient of a 2025-2026 Pilot & Feasibility award from our Research Network. Check out a description of Dr. Testard's project below. @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social

✨ 🔦 Research Network Spotlight! 🔦 ✨ Dr. Millie Rincón-Cortés at the University of Texas at Dallas is one of two recipients of a 2025-2026 Pilot & Feasibility award from our Research Network. Check out a description of her project on early life programming and neuroimmune aging in the image below.

And congratulations to our 2025-2026 Pilot & Feasibility award winners Camille Testard (Harvard) and Millie Rincón-Cortés (UT Dallas). Their projects will focus on social bonds and early life programming in animal models to study the social determinants of health and aging.

Congratulations to our 2025-2026 Bruce McEwen Fellowship awardees! Sabrina Mederos (UC Davis) Frank Raven (U Michigan) Congratulations also to travel fellowship awardee Stephanie Fox (UC Santa Barbara). We look forward to your project success!

Network leader @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social has been named editor-in-chief of Neuroscience and BioBehavioral Reviews. This peer-reviewed journal publishes reviews that integrate brain function and behavior of model organism and humans in a range of areas. Congratulations, Alessandro!

Research Network 2023 Pilot & Feasibility awardee @brianmsweis.bsky.social published two papers in Science Advances in July of this year that feature his research on the neuroeconomics of decision making. Join us in congratulating Dr. Sweis! shorturl.at/d65WV shorturl.at/DoU4p

Today is the last day to apply for a small/working group meeting grant from our NIA-funded Research Network! Thanks to all of those who have applied to this and other Network funding mechanisms. Awardees selected soon! Apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/smal...

Congratulations to Bruce McEwen Fellowship recipient Dr. Sarah Wolf for publishing "Telomere-Related Gene Networks in the Ovary Shift Across Environmental Factors" in the Journal of Experimental Zoology - Part A! Read the full text here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Last day for early-career scientists (advanced PhD, postdoc, and faculty) to apply for a McEwen Fellowship, an up-to-$6,000 individual award available for research related to animal models and the social determinants of health and aging. Apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/fell...

One week left to apply for the McEwen Fellowship! Our Research Network awards 1-3 early-career scientists up to $6,000 for using animal models or comparative approaches to study the social determinants of aging. Details on how to apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/fell...

📢Applications for Small/Working Group Meeting grants are now open! Interested in organizing a meeting or working group to collaborate, dialogue, and produce research pursuant to Network aims? Apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/smal... Deadline: July 31

Today is the last day to submit an application for our Network's Pilot & Feasibility awards! Individual or mentored projects available at up to $20,000 in total costs. See the quoted post for more details and visit our website for the full RFA: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/pilo...

The application window for our Pilot awards and McEwen fellowship closes soon! If you have a project proposal that focuses on animal models and comparative studies to study the social elements of human aging, we encourage you to apply! See more here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/

📢Applications for the McEwen fellowship are now open! We expect to award 1-3 fellowships (up to $6,000 each) to early-career scientists with a proposal within the broad scope of our research network’s interests. Deadline: July 15 Apply here: www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/fell...

Interested in learning more about our NIA-funded network? Check out this @science.org feature video from 2020 shortly before our network launched, then visit our website to learn about new Pilot & Feasibility award opportunities! www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwIC... animalsocialaging-network.org

📢Applications are OPEN for our Pilot awards! Individual or mentored projects available with up to $20,000 in total costs! Read the full RFA and apply at the link below! www.animalsocialaging-network.org/funding/pilo... @smacklab.bsky.social @bartolomuccilab.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social

New Research Network publication alert! @sheehanmj.bsky.social and @matthewzipple.bsky.social, both recipients of Network Pilot & Feasibility awards, have published a paper in Aging Cell on ecological realism and epigenetic aging in mice. Congratulations, Mike and Matthew! doi.org/10.1111/acel...

📣New network funding available soon!📣 The Request for Applications for our Research Network's pilot awards (June 1-June 30), the Bruce McEwen Fellowship (June 15-July 15), and small/working group awards (July 1-July 31) will be live on our website (www.animalsocialaging-network.org) in two weeks!

🎤Hey, is this thing on? The Animal Models for the Social Dimensions of Health and Aging Research Network is on Bluesky! We are an NIA-funded network headquartered at UMN, ASU, UNC, and Duke that supports early-career scientists using animal models to study social aging. New funding available soon!