Citizens' Campus: Can we abolish ageing? Possibilities and limits of ageing research

For around 150 years, average life expectancy in industrialized nations has been increasing by around 3 months per year. This trend appears to be unbroken and raises certain expectations. The two extreme positions are, on the one hand, the scenario of abolishing death and, on the other, the acceptance of human mortality and the limitation of life expectancy. But what actually determines the lifespan: is it the genes or is it the environment or our behavior? And are there general principles of ageing or do different animal species age through completely different mechanisms? After an insight into our own research on a particularly short-lived fish species, the question of the possible slowing down of ageing or - in extreme cases - the possibility of rejuvenation will also be addressed. Approaches will be presented in which metformin is administered or the senescent cells that increase with age are removed. Both strategies lead to a prolongation of life in experimental animals. Another method is based on so-called reprogramming. This is a method in which cells can be restored to a naive, undifferentiated and "young" state by introducing four factors.

Prof. Dr. Englert is Deputy Director of the Centre for Ageing Research at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and heads his own research group "Molecular Genetics of Ageing" at the Leibniz Institute on Ageing - Fritz Lipmann Institute e. V. (FLI) Jena.

Admission: 5€