Teatro ConCiencia
From the Biology of Aging to Community Education
Teatro ConCiencia is a CSUN-based science education and community engagement initiative that transforms research on the cellular mechanisms of aging into short, accessible theatrical performances for older adults and other community audiences. Its name reflects both con ciencia (“with science”) and conciencia (“awareness”), capturing its goal of using science to build greater understanding of the biological and environmental forces that shape how we age.
The Research: Understanding What Accelerates Biological Aging
The Escorcia Laboratory (escorcialab.org) at CSUN studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to aging and age-related disease, with particular interest in genomic instability, metabolism, and cellular stress. Our work asks how environmental and lifestyle exposures interact with the intrinsic processes of aging to accelerate cellular dysfunction and increase susceptibility to diseases such as cancer.
The laboratory uses complementary experimental and computational approaches. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe provides a powerful model for studying conserved processes such as DNA replication, genome maintenance, cell division, metabolism, and cellular aging. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans allows us to extend these questions into a multicellular organism in which metabolism, stress responses, tissue biology, reproduction, and lifespan can be examined together.
These experimental systems are increasingly paired with bioinformatics, quantitative microscopy, and machine-learning-based image analysis to identify and measure cellular features associated with aging and stress. Together, these approaches allow students and researchers to investigate how external “accelerants of aging” intersect with fundamental cellular processes—including genomic instability—to influence health across the lifespan.
The Teatro ConCiencia Pipeline
Teatro ConCiencia translates this science through a three-stage pipeline:
Cell Biology of Aging → Student Translation into Mini-Plays → Community Performance
CSUN students first investigate a specific environmental or behavioral factor that may accelerate biological aging. They examine the scientific literature to understand how the exposure affects cellular pathways; for example, metabolism, DNA damage and repair, inflammation, mitochondrial function, or other hallmarks of aging.
Students then translate those mechanisms into short theatrical works, turning complex cellular biology into characters, conflicts, narratives, and metaphors that non-scientists can understand without sacrificing scientific accuracy.
The resulting mini-plays are performed for older adults in community centers, creating an intergenerational exchange in which CSUN students become science communicators and community members gain practical insight into the biology underlying aging and age-related disease.
The first Teatro ConCiencia project begins with Western diet as an accelerant of cellular aging, using work developed by Cell Biology students. Future Genetics and Cell Biology cohorts will expand the program to examine additional accelerants, including microplastic exposure and chronic psychological stress. Over time, this creates a growing repertoire illustrating a central idea: aging is not produced by biology or environment alone, but by the interaction between intrinsic aging processes and extrinsic exposures accumulated across the life course.
Connecting Research, Education, and Public Service
Teatro ConCiencia reflects my broader career at the intersection of science, education, aging, and public service. I am a molecular and cellular biologist with a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from USC and postdoctoral training in aging research at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. As a faculty member at CSUN, I conduct aging-related research while training students in cell biology, genetics, experimental biology, quantitative analysis, and scientific communication.
I also serve as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission for Older Adults, where I contribute to discussions concerning the needs and well-being of older adults across Los Angeles County.
Teatro ConCiencia brings these roles together. It creates a pathway through which laboratory science informs undergraduate education, undergraduate education produces public-facing communication, and that communication returns scientific knowledge to the communities CSUN serves.
The long-term vision is to develop Teatro ConCiencia into a sustainable CSUN platform where students, scientists, community organizations, and older adults work together to understand—and communicate—how the environments in which we live can shape the biology of how we age.
Teatro ConCiencia is a CSUN-based science education and community engagement initiative that transforms research on the cellular mechanisms of aging into short, accessible theatrical performances for older adults and other community audiences. Its name reflects both con ciencia (“with science”) and conciencia (“awareness”), capturing its goal of using science to build greater understanding of the biological and environmental forces that shape how we age.
The Research: Understanding What Accelerates Biological Aging
The Escorcia Laboratory (escorcialab.org) at CSUN studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that contribute to aging and age-related disease, with particular interest in genomic instability, metabolism, and cellular stress. Our work asks how environmental and lifestyle exposures interact with the intrinsic processes of aging to accelerate cellular dysfunction and increase susceptibility to diseases such as cancer.
The laboratory uses complementary experimental and computational approaches. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe provides a powerful model for studying conserved processes such as DNA replication, genome maintenance, cell division, metabolism, and cellular aging. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans allows us to extend these questions into a multicellular organism in which metabolism, stress responses, tissue biology, reproduction, and lifespan can be examined together.
These experimental systems are increasingly paired with bioinformatics, quantitative microscopy, and machine-learning-based image analysis to identify and measure cellular features associated with aging and stress. Together, these approaches allow students and researchers to investigate how external “accelerants of aging” intersect with fundamental cellular processes—including genomic instability—to influence health across the lifespan.
The Teatro ConCiencia Pipeline
Teatro ConCiencia translates this science through a three-stage pipeline:
Cell Biology of Aging → Student Translation into Mini-Plays → Community Performance
CSUN students first investigate a specific environmental or behavioral factor that may accelerate biological aging. They examine the scientific literature to understand how the exposure affects cellular pathways; for example, metabolism, DNA damage and repair, inflammation, mitochondrial function, or other hallmarks of aging.
Students then translate those mechanisms into short theatrical works, turning complex cellular biology into characters, conflicts, narratives, and metaphors that non-scientists can understand without sacrificing scientific accuracy.
The resulting mini-plays are performed for older adults in community centers, creating an intergenerational exchange in which CSUN students become science communicators and community members gain practical insight into the biology underlying aging and age-related disease.
The first Teatro ConCiencia project begins with Western diet as an accelerant of cellular aging, using work developed by Cell Biology students. Future Genetics and Cell Biology cohorts will expand the program to examine additional accelerants, including microplastic exposure and chronic psychological stress. Over time, this creates a growing repertoire illustrating a central idea: aging is not produced by biology or environment alone, but by the interaction between intrinsic aging processes and extrinsic exposures accumulated across the life course.
Connecting Research, Education, and Public Service
Teatro ConCiencia reflects my broader career at the intersection of science, education, aging, and public service. I am a molecular and cellular biologist with a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from USC and postdoctoral training in aging research at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. As a faculty member at CSUN, I conduct aging-related research while training students in cell biology, genetics, experimental biology, quantitative analysis, and scientific communication.
I also serve as a Commissioner on the Los Angeles County Commission for Older Adults, where I contribute to discussions concerning the needs and well-being of older adults across Los Angeles County.
Teatro ConCiencia brings these roles together. It creates a pathway through which laboratory science informs undergraduate education, undergraduate education produces public-facing communication, and that communication returns scientific knowledge to the communities CSUN serves.
The long-term vision is to develop Teatro ConCiencia into a sustainable CSUN platform where students, scientists, community organizations, and older adults work together to understand—and communicate—how the environments in which we live can shape the biology of how we age.
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