Dr. Tamar Tchkonia received her Master’s degree from Tbilisi State University and her Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from the Institute of Molecular Biology, Moscow Russia.  She was a Docent at Tbilisi State University and invited lecturer at Tbilisi State Medical University.  After two years of postdoctoral training at the Boston University Medical Center, Dr. Tchkonia joined the faculty at the Evans Biomedical Research Center at Boston University. Since 2007, Dr. Tchkonia has been a Senior Research Scientist at the Kogod center on Aging and Associate Professor at the department of Medicine at Mayo Clinic. Her research is actively involved in translational continuum, including discovery science, translational research and clinical applications in the field of cellular senescence and aging. In collaboration with Dr. Kirkland and others, she discovered   the first senolytic drugs that are effective in eliminating senescent cells both in vitro and in vivo and   demonstrated   that pharmacological targeting of these cells can alleviate age-related frailty and  symptoms of multiple diseases. Some of these drugs have been already tested in clinical trials for variety of indications at different centers in US and world-wide. Dr. Tchkonia is one of the four co-inventors of a mouse model where senescent cells can be removed selectively and a named inventor on multiple patent applications related to therapeutic approaches for targeting senescent cells in aging and disease.