Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Aging of humans and other multicellular eukaryotic organisms is due to a lifelong buildup of unrepaired damage to cellular macromolecules and organelles. Progressive accumulation of such damage impairs normal functioning of the entire organism, thereby increasing a risk of age-related disease and death. I use the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for defining mechanisms of aging and death, which in this unicellular eukaryotic organism is mechanistically similar to cellular aging and death in multicellular eukaryotes. I recently discovered a form of age-related programmed cell death called “liponecrosis”; it can be elicited by an exposure of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to exogenous fatty acids. The experiments that are now proposed are aimed at elucidating molecular and cellular mechanisms causing liponecrotic programmed cell death. This knowledge is fundamental to understand molecular and cellular defects underlying aging process in humans. The proposed in this application studies will lay the foundation for future therapeutic approaches to the extension of human lifespan and healthspan by delaying the onset and slowing down the progression of age-related diseases.