Dogs are so attuned to humans that many people think of them as family.

狗对人类很熟悉，许多人将它们视为家庭成员。

I can't imagine you know my life without them. So, yeah, they're just, you know they're just a central point part of my life.

我无法想象没有它们的生活，所以它们已经成为了我们生命中的核心。

According to a pet owner survey, there are some 90 million pet dogs in the United States.

根据一项宠物主人调查发现，美国大约有九千万只宠物狗。

The University of Washington is recruiting 10,000 of them for a study on aging.

华盛顿大学用了一万只狗来做关于变老的研究。

The goal is to follow dogs for their entire lives, young, old, big, small, males, females,

目标是追随这些狗的一生，年轻的，老的，大的，小的，雌性的，雄性的，

all dogs all around the U.S. to understand how the biology and the environment shape healthy aging in dogs.

全美所有的狗，了解生物和环境是如何让狗健康变老的。

The University of Washington is partnering with veterinarians like Dr. Kate Creevy at Texas A&M University.

华盛顿大学正在和德克萨斯A&M大学的兽医合作，比如凯特医生。

By studying aging in pet dogs living in human environments, we can learn things that will translate to human health as we age,

通过了解生活在人类环境中狗的变老过程，这些都可以转变到人类变老的健康过程，

in a shorter period of time, and we'll also directly benefit companion dogs along the way, which is extremely important to me as a veterinarian.

而且在很短的时间内就可以，在这个过程当中还可以让狗狗们收益，对于我一位兽医而言这个很重要。

Dogs and humans age in much the same way. They have a similar genome and get the same diseases.

狗和人类的变老过程很相似，他们都有类似的基因组，可以患相同的疾病。

As pets, they also share our environment. Researchers will look for lifestyle factors that also affect humans such as diet, activity level,

作为宠物，他们还有共同的环境，研究人员研究生活习惯因素，这些也可以影响人类，比如饮食，活动水平，

and where the dog lives, in addition to genetics and medical history.

以及狗的居住地，除了遗传学和病史。

One of the goals is to find out how to prevent age-related diseases.

其中一个目标是如何避免老年病。

Traditionally in medicine, we have waited until people are sick and then we try to do something about it.

传统上我们通过药物，我们会等到人们得病了再去行动。

We try to cure the disease, or we at least try to alleviate the symptoms.

我们尝试治好疾病，至少减轻病症。

The goal here is to really keep dogs and people healthy as long as possible before they get sick.

目标是让狗和人类在得病之前尽可能长地保持健康。

And I think this is a really important aspect of targeting the biology of aging directly,

我认为这是直接针对变老的重要一方面。

rather than targeting individual diseases as they happen.

而不是当疾病发生时去针对某类疾病。

The data would be available to all scientists to encourage research on improving old age for both humans and dogs.

数据将供所有科学家享有，鼓励提高人类和狗的老年质量。

Carol Pearson, VOA news Washington

卡洛·皮尔森，VOA新闻华盛顿报道