What is Cynthia Kenyon?
{{Infobox scientist | image = Cyntia Kenyon 01.JPG | image_size = 275px | name = Cynthia Kenyon | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|02|21}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | ethnicity = | field = [[Biologist]] | work_institutions = [[University of California, San Francisco]] (UCSF) | alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] | doctoral_advisor = Graham Walker | notable_students = Andrew Dillin | known_for = Aging in ''[[Caenorhabditis elegans|C. elegans]]'' | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | prizes = [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]]<br />[[Dan David Prize]] | religion = | footnotes = | signature = }} '''Cynthia Jane Kenyon''' (born February 21, 1954) is an [[United States|American]] [[molecular biologist]] and [[geneticist]]. She does research on the genetics of [[aging]] in the [[model organism]] ''[[Caenorhabditis elegans]]'', which is a [[roundworm]]. == Career == Kenyon did postdoctoral studies with [[Nobel laureate]] [[Sydney Brenner]] at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in [[Cambridge]], England, studying the development of ''C. elegans''. Since 1986 she has been at the [[University of California, San Francisco]] (UCSF), as the [[Herbert Boyer]] Distinguished Professor of [[Biochemistry]] and [[Biophysics]], and now as an [[American Cancer Society]] professor. She is also Vice President of Aging Research at [[Calico (company)|Calico]], a new company focused on health, well-being, and [[longevity]]. == Research == Her early work led to the discovery that [[hox gene]]s, known to pattern the body segments of the fruit fly ''[[Drosophila]]'', also pattern the body of ''C. elegans''. These findings showed that hox genes were part of an ancient and fundamental [[metazoan]] patterning system. [[Michael Klass]] discovered that lifespan of ''C. elegans'' could be