There are some undeniable truths in life. One of them is that we will get older. Yet we don't really know how and why we age.

It’s those central questions that Veena Prahlad is tackling in her undergraduate class, Mechanisms of Aging (BIOL:2603).

The assistant biology professor, who earned a doctorate from Northwestern University, brings her own expertise studying how stresses affect organisms and attending aging meetings to relay to her students the newest advances in the field.

“Aging is going to be the challenge we and future generations are going to face, and an understanding of its biological underpinnings, I think, is necessary for younger generations—and could really yield profound insights into biology and our particular situation on this planet,” says Prahlad, who’s starting her fourth year at the UI and is also a member of the UI's Aging Mind and Brain Initiative.

In a recent class, Prahlad walked her two-dozen students through the role stem cells play in humans. You can think of stem cells as selfless conscripts, ready to become internal organs, muscle tissue, skin, and anything else the body needs. When we’re young, stem cells faithfully divide into two new cells: one that assumes a specific task identity and another stem cell that begins the process of division and differentiation all over again.

But, as we age, Prahlad told the class, stem cells often produce two so-called “differentiated” cells instead and cease to replicate themselves as stem cells.

“You’re depleting your stem-cell population” as you grow older, Prahlad added.

A lot of research is geared toward unraveling why, and the class got a thrill when Prahlad discussed recent studies showing some potential anti-aging benefits of transfusing a young organism’s blood—chock-full of the ingredients needed to preserve stem cells—into an older creature.

This is the second year Prahlad has offered the class, which is open to any undergraduate who’s taken the two prerequisite introductory biology classes. The course is separated into modules, including DNA damage, transcription, proteins, cells, and organisms. Prahlad weaves new research into the curriculum, ensuring it will remain fresh and relevant.

“What is most exciting for the students, I think, is what is being done now,” says Prahlad.

Gina Nordland, a current student, agrees. The junior and health and human physiology major plans to become a physical therapist, which means at least some of her clients will be older people. She figured it would be wise to know more about their condition.

“I didn’t realize that people were so interested in researching how much we age,” Nordland says. “It freaks me out, when I get older and have children, how much we’ll know about how we age.”