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DNA Damage and Repair and its Impact on Healthy Ageing

Objective

We pioneered an initially highly controversial connection between DNA damage and (accelerated) aging. In the previous ERC grant ‘DamAge’ we reached the stage that (segmental) aging in DNA repair-deficient mice can be largely controlled. The severity of the repair defect determines the rate of segmental aging; the repair pathways affected influence which organs age fast; conditional repair mutants allow targeting accelerated aging to any organ. Importantly, we found that dietary restriction (DR), the only universal intervention known to delay aging, extends remaining life- and healthspan in progeroid Ercc1Δ/- mutants by 200% (see Vermeij et al., Nature 2016 and fig.2). Also Xpg-/- progeroid repair mice strongly benefit from DR, generalizing this finding. The prominent Alzheimer- and Parkinson-like neurodegeneration is even retarded up to 30-fold(!) disclosing powerful untapped reserves unleashed by 30% less food, with enormous clinical potential. Also we discovered that in accelerated and normal aging gene expression declines due to accumulating stochastic transcription-blocking lesions and that DR counteracts genomic dysfunction. In Dam2Age we will focus on the cross-talk between DNA damage, aging and DR with emphasis on the relevance for normal aging, elucidate underlying mechanisms and use our unique -for DR research superior- mouse models and a variety of novel assays to search for effective nutritional-pharmacological DR mimetics. This serves as a stepping stone towards potent universal therapy for a range of repair-deficient progeroid syndromes and prevention of many aging-related diseases, most urgently dementia’s, to promote sustained health.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2016-ADG

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Host institution

ERASMUS UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM ROTTERDAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 251 719,00
Address
DR MOLEWATERPLEIN 40
3015 GD Rotterdam
Netherlands

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 251 719,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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