Research area
Global Challenge: Age-​dependent diseases

By 2030 almost every fourth person will be 65 or older in Switzerland, Europe, and USA. Since old age is the main risk factor for developing cancer, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as other age-​related pathologies, the growing elderly population poses an immense social and financial challenge.

 

Strategic Goal: To identify novel strategies to improve human healthspan.

Using C. elegans as a pioneering system to model the aging process because of its ease for genetic manipulation, high evolutionary conservation of genes implicated in human diseases, and short lifespan (3 weeks). Importantly, using C. elegans lifespan assays as a read-​out for extension of healthspan is a tractable and fast approach for discovering novel mechanisms that confer healthy aging. Several fundamental mechanisms discovered in C. elegans have been shown to delay age-​related pathologies in higher organisms, such as mice, and these mechanisms have major implications for humans aging. Hence, by using C. elegans to model the aging process we could rapidly identify strategies to improve human healthspan.

 

Research: Currently, the lab focuses on exploring a novel and exciting mechanism that promotes healthy aging.

Our recent work has shown that many health-​ and longevity-​promoting interventions re-​activate the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) genes during aging (Ewald et al., Nature 2015, PMID:25517099). This ECM enhancement is required and sufficient for extending the lifespan of C. elegans. Our research efforts are focusing on exploring the mechanism(s) of how prolonged ECM homeostasis promotes healthy aging.
Membership
Since Membership
2017 Swiss Society for Aging Research
2016 Swiss Society for Matrix Biology
Honours
Year Distinction
2015 Genetics Society of America (GSA)’s DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics