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AGEING

Paving the way to a healthier old age
17-03-2020 | © istockphoto.com | jacoblund
Because lifespans have been steadily increasing, age-related diseases are also on the rise. ERC grantee Linda Partridge is researching ways to help prevent illness in later years and pave the way to a happier and healthier old age.
Wild elephants under threat
09-08-2018 | © picture
Based on University of Turku's press release For more than 3000 years, men have captured wild Asian elephants to use them for work or entertainment. In a new study published today in Nature Communications, ERC grantee Virpi Lummaa shows the harmful effects of these ongoing practices on wild-caught animals. The findings are based on detailed records from the past 100 years over a population of 5000 timber elephants from Myanmar.
Ageing healthily: European scientists unlock the molecular secret behind bat longevity
22-03-2018 | Myotis myotis bats flying © Photography by Olivier Farcy. Courtesy AGELESS project - Portrait photo © Prof. Emma TEELING
Scientists led by ERC grantee Emma Teeling have identified part of the molecular mechanism that gives bat species Myotis their extraordinary long and healthy lifespans. The longest-lived bats can live over 41 years of age while weighing only 7g, which is the human equivalent of some 234 years. They also maintain good health longer than many other mammals. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, focus on the protective structures at the end of chromosomes, called telomeres. Bats may have evolved unique telomere maintenance mechanisms which allow them to repair age-related cell damage.
Together, we can achieve a lot
30-03-2017 | © picture
Ole Kamstrup, MD., MSc., is a pensioner and lives north of Copenhagen in Denmark. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease ten years ago. Since 2013, Mr Kamstrup has been in contact with Professor Deniz Kirik, a neuroscientist at Lund University in Sweden. Professor Kirik, who was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2009, develops new therapies for Parkinson’s disease, using viral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes to the brain. An ERC Proof of Concept grant enabled him to start carrying out a market evaluation and writing a business plan for the promising therapy. Originally published in March 2017 as part of the multimedia campaign "ERC - 10 years – 10 portraits."
Finely-tuned therapies for fighting disease
28-09-2012 | © picture
The ability to fine-tune the functioning of blood vessels and the circulatory system is essential for combating the remodelling of the arteries that leads to heart attacks and strokes. It is also needed for the controlled repair of blood vessels after injury – which may otherwise result in a number of serious conditions. ERC grantee Professor Stefanie Dimmeler and her team at Frankfurt University are studying the role ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays in fine-tuning vascular functions – with the aim of developing new therapies for cardiovascular diseases, which are the most prevalent in Europe, due to growing obesity and longer lifespans.