Nature’s most recent “Insight” supplement is devoted to a topic near and dear to our hearts, even when spelled with that superfluous UK “e”: Ageing. From the introductory editorial:
Ageing, the accumulation of damage to molecules, cells and tissues over a lifetime, often leads to frailty and malfunction. Old age is the biggest risk factor for many diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. … Ageing research is clearly gaining momentum, as the reviews in this Insight testify, bringing hope that at some time in the future we will be able to keep age-related diseases at bay by suppressing ageing itself.
The five reviews are all by prominent scholars — many of whose work we’ve discussed here — and cover a wide range of subjects within gerontology and biogerontology:
- The genetics of ageing, Cynthia J. Kenyon
- Lessons on longevity from budding yeast, Matt Kaeberlein
- Linking functional decline of telomeres, mitochondria and stem cells during ageing, Ergün Sahin & Ronald A. DePinho
- Neural mechanisms of ageing and cognitive decline,
Nicholas A. Bishop, Tao Lu & Bruce A. Yankner - Biodemography of human ageing, James W. Vaupel
As always, Nature Insight supplements are free-access, so even if you don’t have access to a university subscription, you can still read these articles.
(For a previous aging-related Nature Insight on DNA repair, see here.)
Ouroboros 