Towards understanding the biological drivers of cellular ageing

Human ageing is associated with gradual loss of tissue and organ function, with consequent frailty and illness leading to poor quality of later life for many older people. It is thought to result from a failure to repair the body as cells stop dividing and become senescent.
This project aims to investigate the causes of senescence at the fundamental level of the genes involved and the proteins they encode, using an experimental system in which an ageing-associated gene is turned off in normal human cells to induce senescence, to allow analysis of proteins that are altered as cells enter the senescent state.
The powerful modern technique of proteomics will be used for comparison of the levels of many different proteins in senescent cells with those in cells still able to divide; even tiny chemical changes on the proteins that affect their function can be measured.
This study will allow identification of proteins or protein modifications involved in the onset of senescence, with the longer-term aim of highlighting novel targets that could be used to develop drugs to treat or prevent conditions that currently contribute to major loss of life quality for many older people.