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Saint Helena Virtual Forum

Our Ageing Brain and Body

Unraveling mechanisms of longevity, resilience,

and neurodegenerative disease.

Dr. Dena Dubal in conversation with Journalist David Freed

​

Stream at Live Forum or on YouTube on or after October 1, 2026

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Dr. Dena Dubal, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology at UCSF and holds the David A. Coulter Endowed Chair in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease. She earned her MD and PhD from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and completed her medical internship, neurology residency, and chief residency at UCSF. Her laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms of longevity, resilience, and neurodegenerative disease, asking how aging pathways can confer resilience to the brain and counter conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Her team discovered that klotho, a longevity hormone named for a Greek fate, enhances cognition and protects against neurodegenerative decline in animal models, even when administered peripherally without crossing the blood-brain barrier. She also uncovered novel roles for the X chromosome in brain resilience, showing that a second X chromosome confers neural protection in aging and disease. Her work integrates genetic mouse models, cell culture, and studies of human populations, and has been published in leading journals such as Nature and Cell. She is the recipient of the Paul Beeson, Glenn, and Grass Awards.

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David Freed is an American journalist, author, and screenwriter whose career spans investigative reporting, Hollywood filmmaking, and academia. Born in Albany, Georgia, in 1954 and raised in Colorado, Freed graduated from Colorado State University in 1976 before launching his journalism career. He spent nearly two decades as an investigative journalist for the Los Angeles Times, serving as the paper's lead police reporter, was an individual finalist for the Pulitzer Prize's Gold Medal for Public Service, and shared in the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for the newspaper's coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots. He also reported from the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm. 

Freed's writing later appeared in The Atlantic, where his investigation into the FBI's pursuit of the wrong suspect in the post-9/11 anthrax murders was a 2011 finalist for a National Magazine Award. He also sold screenplays in Hollywood and wrote the Cordell Logan mystery series. 

You can view dozens of past forum interviews at the View Past Forums heading above

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THE SAINT HELENA FORUM FOR INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY, a 501(c)3 educational non-profit, is produced entirely by volunteers drawn from a cross section of Napa Valley residents.
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