Dr. Tchkonia is an Assistant Professor and Associated Consultant at the department of Physiology and Biomedical Engendering, at Mayo Clinic. Her research interests involve discovery science, translational research, and clinical applications in the field of cellular senescence, and aging- and senescence-associated chronic diseases. With collaborators, she discovered the first senolytic drugs that effectively eliminate 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 already been tested in clinical trials for various indications at different centers in the US and worldwide. 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.

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 an 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 Tamar has been an active member of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic and a steering committee member of the annual meeting series organized by the Alliance for Healthy Aging.