Healthy ageing in the model system Caenorhabditis elegans

Ageing is a biological process to which most organisms are exposed upon reaching adulthood and is accompanied by a decreased resistance to intrinsic and extrinsic stress. Thanks to technological and medical progress, the average lifespan in the developed countries has only increased the last decades to the extent that more people are suffering from the negative consequences of ageing. Ageing is accompanied with a higher incidence for different diseases like cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, resulting in a high economic cost. Therefore, scientists are looking for possible interventions that might improve healthy ageing, to suppress the enormous economic and social costs. We will use the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate different genetic and nutritional interventions that might improve healthy ageing in this small nematode. We will use different techniques like proteomics, memory assays and optogenetics to characterize the effect of some interventions at the physiological level of the worm to obtain novel insights into healthy ageing. This new knowledge might help us to improve human healthy ageing.