Grant: Operating Grant

In pursuit of longevity and health, scientists have uncovered dietary, metabolic, and genetic factors involved in the aging process. Our bodies are built from millions of living units called cells. Each cell has a copy of our DNA, which is arranged in thousands of units called genes. Not all genes are used in a cell and this is how an eye cell is different from a liver cell. Genes are arranged on linear structures called chromosomes. At both ends of each chromosome lies a special structure termed telomere, which protects our DNA and controls which genes are expressed in a cell. Telomeres have generated much excitement in recent years and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to their discoverers. The excitement stems from the fact that telomeres become defective as we age but cancer cells have unusually strong telomeres. This led scientists to suspect that telomeres may act like a clock controlling how long our cells and we live. Scientists have also learned a lot by studying patients that age too fast. In the most extreme of these cases, young children start to look and be old as they suffer from heart attacks and strokes. In fact, scientists now know that these patients have defects in a group of proteins located at the edge of the balloon-like envelope in which genes are located in a cell. My lab has new data indicating that these proteins actually attach telomeres to the edge of this envelope. This attachment allows telomeres to function properly. These proteins also attach other parts of our DNA. Together, these attachments act like hooks holding up a tent, or the DNA, in place. We propose that removing these DNA-hooking proteins causes normal cells to behave like old ones. Also, once these proteins are lost such as in premature aging, we test if artificial DNA hooks introduced at the envelope or pharmaceuticals can make cells young again. This study may allow us to slow down normal or premature aging and prevent age-related diseases.