Researcher
Judith Campisi
Last updated Sun May 17 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Background
Judith Campisi (1948–2024) spent most of her career at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California, with prior appointments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She trained at the Boston University School of Medicine.
Key contributions
- Defined the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP): the inflammatory and remodelling factors that senescent cells secrete to influence neighbouring tissue — a crucial reframing from senescence as cell-autonomous to senescence as a tissue-level driver of disease.
- Co-founded Unity Biotechnology, the first dedicated senolytic company.
- Worked on senescence in cancer biology and in age-related disease.
Influence
The SASP framework underpins most modern senescence-targeted drug development. The recognition that senescent cells drive nearby tissue decline (rather than just sitting inertly) made senolytics a coherent therapeutic concept.
Related entries
References
- Coppé, J.-P. et al. Senescence-associated secretory phenotypes reveal cell-nonautonomous functions of oncogenic RAS. PLoS Biol. 6, e301 (2008).