Dr. Linda Partridge, founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging offered the 17th Copp Lecture on June 4, 2021, on the topic of Aging: a gut feeling.
A distinguished researcher whose accolades include election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Foreign membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and awardee of the Royal Society Croonian Prize Lecture in 2009, Dr. Partridge joins LSI Director Dr. Josef Penninger in offering a seminar honouring the memory of D. Harold Copp. Dr. Copp was the former head of the Department of Physiology at UBC, and was noted for discovering and naming calcitonin, a hormone used in the treatment of bone disease.
The following summary captures the essence of Dr. Partridge’s fascinating talk. A recording of the webinar can be viewed by clicking the link below.
The loss of function and pathology caused by aging can be ameliorated by genetic and pharmacological interventions in laboratory animals. Inhibition of the mTOR network has evolutionarily conserved effects on lifespan and aging. We have found that the gut is a key target tissue for the mTORC1 inhibitor rapamycin, with benefits to both the health of the gut itself and to lifespan. Intestinal health during aging is thus an important determinant of the health of the whole organism.