Friday, 11th of June, 2021, London -- Jan Hoeijmakers, Ph.D., will present the latest research on the topic DNA damage induced transcription stress and its connection with aging and neurodegeneration and the impact of nutrition at the worlds' largest annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery conference (8th ARDD). Dr. Jan Hoeijmakers is the Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Jan Hoeijmakers research focuses on the mechanism and clinical impact of mammalian DNA repair. His team cloned ~half of all key genes involved in nucleotide excision and transcription-coupled repair pathways, enabling elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms. His laboratory generated the largest set of mouse repair mutants providing insight into the etiology of human repair disorders, such as Cockayne syndrome (CS) and trichothiodystrophy (TTD), including the identification of accelerated but bona fide aging. He discovered that accumulating DNA damage and consequent transcription stress are a main cause of systemic aging, but also trigger an anti-aging, calorie-restriction (CR)-like 'survival' response that prioritizes resilience and maintenance mechanisms at the expense of growth.
His team found that applying actual CR to progeroid mouse repair mutants, trippled lifespan and dramatically delayed all aspects of accelerated aging by lowering DNA damage, disclosing at least in part why CR delays aging. Counterintuitive clinical application of reduced nutrition to CS/TTD children strongly improved neurofunction and overall health and led to a complete reversal of the nutritional guidelines for CS and TTD, instead of more patients should get less nutrition. These discoveries have wide medical implications for many aging-related diseases, most strongly neurodegeneration, for reducing side effects of chemo- and radiotherapy, and ischemia reperfusion injury associated with surgery and organ transplantation.
"Understanding the molecular basis of aging will enable healthy aging." said Dr. Jan Hoeijmakers, Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Jan Hoeijmakers heads research teams in the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology (Utrecht), the CECAD in Cologne and the Erasmus Medical Center. For his scientific achievements he has obtained numerous (inter)national awards and distinctions.