Allen Taylor (scientist)

Allen Taylor is an American scientist and Professor of Nutrition, Development, Molecular and Chemical Biology, and Ophthalmology at Tufts University. He focuses on the intersection of proteostasis, nutrition, and aging, specifically age related eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and cataract. Recent advances indicate that there is an association between consuming higher glycemic index diets, typical of Western diet patterns and increased risk for age related macular degeneration. The Taylor group seeks to define mechanistic convergence points between these disciplines as well as define why cardiovascular disease and diabetes are also related to similar risk factors. They are investigating if specific drugs can be used to obtain benefits similar to those achieved when people consume lower glycemia diets. After his experience as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Israel, Dr. Taylor founded and codirects the Science Training Encouraging Peace -Graduate Training Program (STEP), which pairs Israeli and Palestinian advanced level health science students in the same graduate training program in an effort to foster sustainable, cooperative relationships that advance the careers of the STEP Fellows, enrich their academic departments and universities, and provide improved health care or start new industries in the communities they serve. Thus, STEP endeavors to build bridges for productive and cooperative living between the Israeli and Palestinian STEP Fellows and the communities.

Education

Taylor earned his B.S. in Chemistry from City College of New York, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Rutgers University, and completed his postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley.

Research

Dr. Taylor directs, coordinates and designs epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory research at Tufts and collaborating institutions. This includes human and animal studies that seek to discover behaviors, environmental influences, methods and molecules that diminish the risk for cataract and AMD (age-related macular degeneration). He designs laboratory studies which are defining relations between sugars and other carbohydrates, vitamins and antioxidants, oxidative stress, protein damage, proteases in the ubiquitin and lysosomal autophagic pathways, aberrations in protein turnover, protein quality control, and the cytotoxic accumulation of damaged proteins upon aging in the eye. They also work on roles of the ubiquitin proteolytic pathway in cell proliferation, differentiation and organogenesis." Recently they discovered ubiquitination processes and enzymes that stabilize the major cell cycle regulator p27 rather than catalyzing its degradation. Specific research emphasis areas are elucidating why consuming higher glycemia diets (glycemic index or glycemic load) is associated with enhanced risk for AMD, cataract, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and how minor dietary behavior changes can diminish risk for these diseases.

Positions and awards

In addition to his work at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and with STEP-GTP, Dr. Taylor has been Senior Fellow in the Fulbright Program and has been awarded the Osborne and Mendel Award for Excellence in Nutrition Research, the Denham Harman Award for Excellence in Aging Research, and the Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Nutritional Sciences Award.

Taylor was honored as a fellow in the American Association for Advancement of Science and American Society for Nutrition.

Publications

Taylor is the author or co-author of more than 190 peer-reviewed articles, 60 chapters and reviews, and 2 books.