Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dog-aging-project-2022/

Dogs and humans have been closely interwoven for millennia, facing the same challenges and experiencing the same bond of companionship.

Now, a team of scientists is taking a closer look at dogs, hoping to discover more about them and, in the process, about humans.

The Dog Aging Project aims to collect data that could help scientists expand the healthspan — the number of years free from disease and disability — of dogs and humans, and they need the help of every dog lover they can get!

Researchers at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the University of Washington School of Medicine, and twelve other partner institutions began enrolling dogs in the study in 2018, amassing a huge amount of health, genetic, and environmental data as they track the diverse species over time.

They have already accepted more than 35,000 canine subjects, and are still searching for more.

“The scientific objectives of this study are to identify the genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that influence aging in dogs, to discover the underlying molecular mechanisms by which they do so, and to test potential ways to increase the duration of healthy lifespan in dogs,” the authors wrote in a Nature article.

“Given that dogs share the human environment and have a sophisticated health care system but are much shorter-lived than people, they offer a unique opportunity to identify the genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors associated with healthy lifespan,” explained Dr. Daniel Promislow, a professor of biology at the UW College of Arts and Sciences and of laboratory medicine and pathology at the UW School of Medicine in an interview with the UW Newsroom.

Learn more about the project, including how you and your pup can get involved, at their official site here or check them out on Instagram, @dogagingproject.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog