Michael Rose, PhD

Dr. Rose is a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine. He received his PhD from the University of Sussex in 1978.

He is a prolific biologist whose research into the evolution of aging has effectively transformed that field. His main area of work has been the evolution of aging, approached both theoretically and empirically via the technique of experimental evolution.

In 1991, he published Evolutionary Biology of Aging, exploring a view of the subject based on antagonistic pleiotropy, the hypothesis that aging is caused by genes that have two effects: one acting early in life, and the other much later. These genes are favored by natural selection as a result of their early-life benefits. The costs that accrue much later appear as incidental side effects that we identify as aging. Dr. Rose has also suggested that it is possible that aging can stop in a latter stage of life.