Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has announced a five-year, $32.4 million award from the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Hevolution Foundation to study healthy aging.

The gift will support the Proteostasis Consortium—a group of investigators from Northwestern, the University of California San Francisco, the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, Stanford University, Scripps Research, Harvard Medical School, and the Health Research Institute of Asturias in Spain—in the study of proteostasis, the processes by which cells maintain protein health for good overall health, and to prevent diseases of protein misfolding.

According to the university, there is emerging evidence that aging causes a decline in one or more of the proteostasis network components, which leads to the accumulation of damaged, misfolded, and aggregated proteins, interferes with the integrity of cellular machinery, and increases the risk for diseases of protein conformation such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, cancers, and metabolic diseases. Research conducted by the consortium aims to increase understanding of the underlying causes of aging and help prevent—rather than treat—the diseases of old age.

“We are thrilled that the Proteostasis Consortium is partnering with the Hevolution Foundation to address this fundamental question on the biology of aging,” said Richard I. Morimoto, the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology and director of the Rice Institute for Biomedical Research in Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and principal investigator on the grant. “Our team is working to provide new insights on the molecular biology of healthy aging and develop approaches to rejuvenate cellular and organismal health.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Lordn)