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Institutes of Science
Ken Raj, PhD
Principal Investigator
"The founding principle of Altos – mission-led collaborative research – attracted me here to work with scientists with diverse expertise to investigate the biology of ageing and health."
Dr. Ken Raj is a Principal Investigator at the Altos Labs Cambridge Institute of Science.
Ken joins Altos Labs from Public Health England, where he investigated and uncovered the mechanism that mediates the onset of cardiovascular disease following exposure to ionising radiation. This mechanism that involved the acceleration of cellular ageing led him to develop human cell ageing assays based on epigenetic clocks, which he deployed to elucidate common denominators that link the different hallmarks of ageing. He unified the hallmarks into two clusters deterministic and stochastic, providing clear evidence-based distinction between programmed-associated and stochastic mechanisms of ageing. Ken's current investigation at Altos Labs encompasses age-related histone modifications, chromatin state alterations and DNA methylation changes, with specific focus on the causes of these changes and their consequences to cellular resilience and health.