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Thomas Rando and Anne Brunet provide a general overview on the process and potential prevention of aging. The topics they cover vary from symptoms of aging to unusual characteristics that seem to prolong longevity.
Stanford Mini Med School is a series arranged and directed by Stanford’s School of Medicine and presented by the Stanford Continuing Studies program.
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Dr. Rando was an invited speaker at the Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology for Diet, Metabolism and Aging held in Tahoe City, California. He sat down for this interview with The Science Network.
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Thomas Rando
Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, is one of two recipients of the 2008 Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award sponsored by the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and the American Federation for Aging Research. The award provides $200,000 for a small number of pilot research programs that may be of relatively high risk but which offer significant promise of yielding transforming discoveries in the fundamental biology of aging. Rando will investigate how stem cells are able to divide throughout the life of an individual to give rise to new stem cells in tissue, such as new skin cells or cells in the blood, without acquiring mutations in their DNA and causing cancer. Read more
By Louis Bergeron
STANFORD, Calif. — Communication is critical. Garbled in, garbled out, so to (mis-)speak. Workers who get incomplete instructions produce an incomplete product, and that’s exactly what happens with the stem cells in our aging muscles, according to researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Their study found that, as we age, the lines of communication to the stem cells of our muscles deteriorate and, without the full instructions, it takes longer for injured muscles to heal. Even then, the repairs aren’t as good. But now that the researchers have uncovered the conduit that conveys the work orders to muscle stem cells, that knowledge could open the door to new therapies for injuries in a host of different tissues.
The findings, from the lab of Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, suggest stem cells are careful when they undergo cell division so that random mutations in their chromosomes are not passed on to the next generation of stem cells. The results support a much-debated hypothesis proposed in 1975 by Oxford University geneticist John Cairns, PhD. Although other groups have uncovered hints that Cairns was right, Rando’s findings are the most detailed to date.
The results are published in the April 17 issue of the Public Library of Science-Biology.
Rando said no other work he’s done has created as much excitement among his colleagues in the stem cell field. “The lesson from this is that when something seems strange, don’t ignore it. Sometimes what puzzles you turns out to be the most interesting,” he said.