Genetics of Aging

GAMBIER, Ohio (February 21, 2007) According to the February/March issue of National Wildlife magazine, the work of Kenyon biology professor Mark Haussmann may lead to insights that will help stave off some of aging's most devastating effects.

Research conducted by Haussmann, Kenyon students, and biology professor Robert Mauck involves extracting DNA from a sea bird, Leach's storm petrel, and eventually isolating telomeres, sheaths at the ends of chromosomes that protect genetic information from damage. Some scientists have speculated that telomerase, a protein which elongates telomeres, could yield therapies that lengthen the human life span. "I don't think we'll be able to take a telomerase pill to extend our lives," Haussmann is quoted as saying in National Wildlife. "But by understanding how these mechanisms work, it could lead to therapies that inhibit tumor-cell growth."

Robert Mauck and former student Jenny Glazer

Haussmann and his student assistants, working on Kent Island in New Brunswick, Canada, and in labs at Kenyon, are part of ongoing research that Mauck has been pursuing as the director of the Bowdoin Scientific Station since 2000. Several students collaborate with Haussmann and Mauck each year as Summer Science Scholars, a Kenyon program that provides opportunities for students to work closely with faculty mentors as full participants in the processes of creating a research plan, executing the project, and preparing results for presentation in a public forum.