Grant: Emerging Team Grant: From Genes to Proteins, Cells, Tissues and Patients - LOI

Aging is seen as a progressive deterioration of physiological functions that impairs the ability of an organism to maintain its homeostasis and consequently increases its susceptibility to diseases and death. Interestingly, Werner Syndrome is a disorder characterized by the premature onset of age-related diseases. We generated a mouse mutant strain of the WRN homologue which phenocopies the human syndrome. The objectives of this emerging Molecular Mechanisms of Aging Team (MMAT) is to identify molecular changes (at the RNA and protein levels) with age in our mouse model, to identify directly in tissues the WRN protein complexes involved in the maintenance of normal homeostasis, to identify polymorphisms or mutations in the WRN gene associated with age-related diseases in the general human population and to determine the impact of different WRN polymorphisms on its activities in cells and tissues. Deciphering the functions of WRN in cells will provide information on the biological and molecular pathways affected in cells that regulate tissue aging. The long term goal of this team is to establish a network of scientists in Canada and abroad interested in understanding the molecular alterations associated with aging and eventually find chemicals, natural compounds, or drugs that will alleviate the abnormal molecular pathways in aging cells and ameliorate the health of our aging population.