Presenter
Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Associate Professor at the Center for Healthy Aging at University of Copenhagen
Aging is the largest risk factor for most diseases and damage to our genome is a likely cause of aging. My work focuses on exploring the physiological consequences of DNA damage and what we can do to intervene in genotoxic insults. My goal is to understand, modulate and perhaps treat aging and age related diseases.
Summary:
Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Associate Professor at the Center for Healthy Aging at University of Copenhagen, asks how can we repair the irreparable? DNA is the foundation of information storage in living organisms. As we age, we accumulate DNA damage. Premature aging diseases are often associated with defects in DNA repair. Furthermore, the effectiveness of DNA repair processes seem to correlate with rates of aging. While it’s sometimes possible to attenuate the phenotypes of aging, the underlying damage – DNA damage – is not changed. How can we fix the blueprint? What can we do to slow or reverse damage at the level of the gene?
