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SUMMARY:Genomics and Ageing Well - Professor David Melzer\, Professor of E
 pidemiology and Public Health\, University of Exeter Medical School
DTSTART:20141010T120000Z
DTEND:20141010T130000Z
UID:TALK51212@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucy Lloyd
DESCRIPTION:Professor Carol Brayne\, Director of the Cambridge Institute o
 f Public Health\, will introduce David Melzer. This talk will focus on rec
 ent progress in identifying common genetic variants and genomic markers as
 sociated with ageing well. A majority of chronic disease is strongly age r
 elated\, but mechanisms have been poorly understood. There is increasing e
 vidence from laboratory models that specific pathways underlie much age re
 lated disease. There are two robust mouse models of controlling and even r
 eversing ageing changes. Translating these findings to help humans age wel
 l is now a key challenge.\n \nGenome wide association studies of SNPs in a
 ge related diseases have identified many relevant variants\, but studies o
 f long lived individuals or their offspring have thus far been less produc
 tive. Transcriptome wide and methylation array studies in humans are provi
 ding new insights into age related mechanisms in humans. Recent larger sca
 le human studies of genome wide expression (notably from the InCHIANTI agi
 ng study) have identified changes in splicing\, the ‘fine tuning’ of p
 rotein sequences\, as a potentially important factor in decline of cellula
 r function with advancing age. Studies of expression associations with mus
 cle strength have shown striking concordance with a mouse model of muscle 
 repair. A similar study of expression and cognitive decline in humans iden
 tified a gene (CCR2) knocked out in a mouse model of beta-amyloid phagocyt
 osis. Recent explorations of age related inflammatory states will be descr
 ibed\, illustrating some of the pitfalls of transcriptomic studies in peop
 le. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the emerging genom
 ic biomarkers of human ageing.\n
LOCATION:Large Seminar Room\, 1st Floor\, Institute of Public Health\, Uni
 versity Forvie Site\, Robinson Way\, Cambridge
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