The great thing about living in today's world is that we
get to live longer.
Unfortunately, the downside is that with older age comes a
higher risk of age related diseases, such as Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's, heart diseases, or cancer.
In order to understand human health span, we need to get to
know more about biology of ageing.
There is no hiding it, it's complicated.
It has genetic components, it has environmental components,
and there is an extensive interplay between the two.
One part of the human genome that has been shown to be
linked to longevity is part of chromosome four.
Because individual genes can affect lifespan, we need a
simple model to study it.
So what we use is a nematode worm called C. elegans.
On this plate, there are thousands of worms.
They're really small, about a millimetre long, which is why
we need to use the microscope in order to study them.
Their genetic makeup is really similar to our own, so
studying genes in the worm that control lifespan will
also tell us a lot about our own lifespan.
They live for about two to three weeks.
They're really easy to look after, and we can also
manipulate their genes very, very easily.
Even though they're so small, we can tell the difference
between a young worm and an old worm just by looking at
them down a microscope.
On the left is a young worm, and on the right is a much
older worm.
The older worm can no longer move around the plate
searching for food, and you might be able to see it looks
a lot sicker.
As with humans, there is much variation between individuals
in terms of how long they live, which means when we
study ageing in a worm, we need to look at a whole
population of worms rather than just one or two
individuals.
So you can ask, how do you measure ageing in a
population of worms?
What we do, we start with let's say 100 worms, and we
put each and every single one of them on a separate plate.
And we check up on them every single day until they die.
So we need a way to assess whether they stop moving
because they are dead, or because they just don't want
to move anymore.
So what we do we essentially poke them with a stick.
In our case it's a platinum wire.
And if they respond, that means they're alive, if they
don't we count them as dead.
So this way, we can draw a graph.
If we start, let's say, with 100 worms alive at day zero,
we have to check every single day how many worms have died.
We can draw a really nice parallel to humans in here,
because just as us, worms can live to different age.
In our lab, we are particularly interested in
genes that cause changes in how long the worms live.
If they live shorter, the whole curve is
shifted to the left.
And if they live longer, the whole curve is
shifted to the right.
The aim of research in our lab is to eventually develop drugs
that will influence the genetic control of ageing, and
therefore delay or even prevent many of the age
related diseases in humans.
So in this way, we are using the worm to reveal the secrets
of a long and healthy life.