Welcome to the Aging, Metabolism, & Emotions Center

The AME Center of UCSF’s School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry is at the Center for Health and Community. AME researchers study relations between 1) Types of chronic stress, psychiatric illness, and positive states (e.g., positive emotion, resilience and thriving under adversity; 2) Restorative health behaviors such as sleep, exercise, and mindfulness meditation; and 3) Physiological imprints of stress, such as altered inflammatory immune function, cellular mechanisms underlying vascular health and rejuvenation, adiposity, and, at the cellular level, cellular stress and rate of mitotic cell aging (such as that measured by telomere length). We conduct basic and translational mind to behavior and biology research to understand these complex relations. We also study interventions (in person and mHealth) to improve lifestyle, enhance coping and emotion regulation, and reduce stress. This website shows various projects and publications, as well as events or new findings in this growing field.

Upcoming Talks

Latest Research

Kirstin Aschbacher and colleagues have published a new study that finds that "Stress has unexpected health benefits - sometimes." Read the original article here.

Read Aric A. Prather's new paper, "Impact of Sleep Quality on Amygdala Reactivity, Negative Affect, and Perceived Stress."

Read about Sheldon Cohen's new study - the first experimental study to show that having short telomeres in young adults may matter, in that it predicts an important functional outcome - getting the common cold! You can read the JAMA publication here and/or watch a 1 minute video by SLATE here.