Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC) have found a fast and effective way to
investigate important aspects of human ageing. Working at the
University of Oxford and The Open University, Dr Lynne Cox and Dr
Robert Saunders have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies
can now be used to study the effects ageing has on DNA. In new work
published today in the journal Aging Cell, the researchers demonstrate
the value of this model in helping us to understand the ageing process.
This exciting study demonstrates that fruit flies can be used to study
critical aspects of human ageing at cellular, genetic and biochemical
levels.
Dr Lynne Cox from the University of Oxford said: “We
study a premature human ageing disease called Werner syndrome to help
us understand normal ageing. The key to this disease is that changes in
a single gene (called WRN) mean that patients age very quickly.
Scientists have made great progress in working out what this gene does
in the test tube, but until now we haven’t been able to investigate the
gene to look at its effect on development and the whole body. By
working on this gene in fruit flies, we can model human ageing in a
powerful experimental system.”
Dr Robert Saunders from The
Open University added: “This work shows for the first time that we can
use the short-lived fruit fly to investigate the function of an
important human ageing gene. We have opened up the exciting possibility
of using this model system to analyse the way that such genes work in a
whole organism, not just in single cells.” Read More...