Biography
Stephen Bondy is Professor of Neuroscience in the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Irvine since 1985. The focus of his research concerns the mechanistic processes underlying the effect of environmental or nutritional agents in altering the rate of brain aging. He obtained an M.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK in 1962. He has held positions at Columbia University, UCLA, University of Colorado, and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences where he was Head of the Neurochemistry Section. Dr. Bondy is the author of around 400 articles and reviews.
Research Interests
Brain aging; Environmental and dietary agents that promote or retard such aging
Current Projects/Studies
I have been studying the effects of melatonin on brain aging since 2001. In recent years, my interest has been primarily focused on the ability of melatonin to act as a neuromodulator in optimizing immune responses to exogenous stimuli, while reducing the intrinsic chronic inflammation encountered in the aging brain. The ability of melatonin to regulate, rather than merely inhibit or promote immune function, is also illustrated by our finding that tumor formation in the aging mouse is greatly inhibited by melatonin administration.
I am also investigating the tendency of ingestion of low levels of aluminum salts to promote age-related chronic inflammation and thereby accelerate the appearance of neurodegenerative disease.
Thus overall, my interests are focused on exogenous factors, which can either enhance or slow down age-related and block non-productive inflammatory events.Research focuses on the role of environmental factors in the initiation or potentiation of neurodegenerative diseases. In this context the emphasis is on the contribution of inflammatory events to neural aging. The potential slowing of brain aging by antioxidants and antiinflammatory agents such as melatonin, is also under investigation. Such retardation could reduce the incidence of specific age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Education
M.A., Cambridge
OTH, Birmingham, England
