Project Details
Projekt
SFB 728: Environment-induced Aging Processes
Subject Area
Biology
Medicine
Medicine
Term
from 2007 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 21971595
In western societies early death is prevented with increasing success. Due to rising life expectancy, the natural aging process becomes more and more important as a cause of death and illness. The process of aging is one of the least comprehended phenomena of human biology. According to the generally accepted theory of "disposable soma", aging is the outcome of various limiting mechanisms. At present, these mechanisms are only partially understood, and they can hardly be influenced systematically. Therefore, causal concepts for the control of the medical problems of old age are missing. Yet our health care system is faced with just these problems more and more frequently.
We want to contribute to this important field of aging research by:
(1) investigating aging mechanisms at a molecular level,
(2) we want to demonstrate the importance of these molecular mechanisms of the aging processes by using whole model organs and organisms.
(3) On the basis of these models we aim to develop pharmacological concepts of prevention and therapy, and
(4) to transfer them to humans.
It is the ultimate goal to modulate the restraining aging processes by therapeutic and preventive measures in order to allow a "healthy" aging in terms of a prolongation of the period of life, which is not impaired by senile decay. We are focusing on this task in two ways: Focusing on extrinsic aging processes, which are driven by environmental factors, nutrition and lifestyle, and which most likely can be influenced, we aim to shed some light on how to influence these processes medically. We focus on skin aging, in which extrinsic mechanisms play a significant role and which is clearly to distinguish from other skin diseases. Later on we intend to investigate, how far the findings made in this organ are transferable to extrinsic aging of other organs, e.g. the central nervous system or the cardiovascular system.
We want to contribute to this important field of aging research by:
(1) investigating aging mechanisms at a molecular level,
(2) we want to demonstrate the importance of these molecular mechanisms of the aging processes by using whole model organs and organisms.
(3) On the basis of these models we aim to develop pharmacological concepts of prevention and therapy, and
(4) to transfer them to humans.
It is the ultimate goal to modulate the restraining aging processes by therapeutic and preventive measures in order to allow a "healthy" aging in terms of a prolongation of the period of life, which is not impaired by senile decay. We are focusing on this task in two ways: Focusing on extrinsic aging processes, which are driven by environmental factors, nutrition and lifestyle, and which most likely can be influenced, we aim to shed some light on how to influence these processes medically. We focus on skin aging, in which extrinsic mechanisms play a significant role and which is clearly to distinguish from other skin diseases. Later on we intend to investigate, how far the findings made in this organ are transferable to extrinsic aging of other organs, e.g. the central nervous system or the cardiovascular system.
DFG Programme
Collaborative Research Centres
Completed projects
- A01 - Exogenous DNS-doublestandbreaks - mechanisms of generation, accumulation and protection and their role in aging of proliferative and postmitotic tissues (Project Heads Boege, Friedrich ; Mielke, Christian )
- A03 - Rolle von Chronophin-Phosphatasen für die Funktion der Aktin-Zytoskelett-Dynamik bei der umweltinduzierten Zellalterung (Project Head Gohla, Antje )
- A04 - Zusammenhang von Aneuploidie und Zellalterung (Project Heads Fleig, Ursula-Nicole ; Hegemann, Johannes H. )
- A05 - Mitotic spindle apparatus and nuclear pore complexes: Role in environmentally induced cellular aging (Project Head Piekorz, Roland )
- A06 - Functional Organization of the aging nucleus: the role of protein homeostasis, fibrillation and aggregation (Project Head von Mikecz, Anna )
- B01 - Characterization of novel mechanisms that control expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 at the translational and post-translational level and their role in environmental aging (Project Head Jänicke, Reiner U. )
- B03 - FoxO-Proteine in der stressinduzierten Zellalterung (Project Head Klotz, Lars-Oliver )
- B04 - Retrograde signalling in extrinsic skin aging (Project Head Krutmann, Jean )
- B05 - Dissection of nuclear and mitochondrial functions of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase ex vivo and in vivo (Project Heads Altschmied, Joachim ; Haendeler, Judith )
- B06 - Circadian clocks and aging: metabolic control of the circadian oscillator (Project Head Reinke, Hans )
- C01 - The role of the Cockayne syndrome B protein in extrinsic aging processes (Project Heads Krutmann, Jean ; Uhrberg, Markus G. )
- C02 - Induktion von Deletionen der mitochondrialen DNS durch zellspezifische Expession einer Deletor-Helikase in der Haut (Project Head Wiesner, Rudolf )
- C03 - Die Bedeutung von Veränderungen der DNS-Methylierung bei der UV-induzierten Hautalterung (Project Heads Reifenberger, Julia ; Reifenberger, Ph.D., Guido )
- C04 - Die Bedeutung des AhR-Signalweges bei der UV-induzierten Hautalterung (Project Heads Abel, Josef ; Fritsche, Ellen )
- C06 - Bedeutung der UV-vermittelten Veränderungen der Hyaluronsäure-Matrix während der Hautalterung (Project Head Fischer, Jens W. )
- Z02 - Administration (Project Head Krutmann, Jean )
Applicant Institution
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Participating University
Universität zu Köln
Participating Institution
IUF - Leibniz-Institut für umweltmedizinische Forschung gGmbH
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Jean Krutmann
