The Starr Foundation Invests $37 Million in a Brown University and Brown University Health Alliance for Aging Research

The Starr Foundation Invests $37 Million in a Brown University and Brown University Health Alliance for Aging Research

On September 3, Brown University announced the Starr Healthspan Innovation Alliance, a five-year program funded by the foundation to connect the university’s Center on the Biology of Aging with clinical trials at Brown University Health. The funding will support laboratory research, the recruitment of new researchers, and the expansion of the clinical research network.

Testing a laboratory finding in humans requires researchers, a clinical trial team, and people willing to participate. The Starr Foundation has committed $37 million over five years to support the work of Brown University’s Center on the Biology of Aging, laboratory research, and the expansion of clinical trials.

The funding will support the recruitment of specialists and two new endowed professorships in geroscience. Geroscience examines the genetic, molecular, and cellular mechanisms of aging. The Center on the Biology of Aging will conduct laboratory research in this field.

Brown University Health already conducts about 500 clinical trials in Rhode Island. Approximately two thirds of them focus on aging and age-related diseases. The alliance will fund specialists, participant recruitment and support through local communities, and partnerships with research groups and industry.

The alliance already has an organizational foundation. In 2022, Brown University established a dedicated structure to coordinate research across its Division of Biology and Medicine and its clinical partners. In 2024, the university and Brown University Health expanded their longstanding affiliation. The new grant adds five years of dedicated funding for aging research and the clinical research network to this collaboration.