Clearing Out Senescent Cells

Too many senescent cells - cells that have stopped dividing, but haven’t yet died - can cause an increase in inflammation, which puts a person at higher risk for disease and signs of aging. Certain conditions are associated with an increased number of these cells, and people with these conditions are at greater risk from COVID-19. Researchers at the Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism (IBAM) are studying how to “clean out” senescent cells, with a hope of discovering how to reduce the diseases associated with aging and fight infections such as COVID-19. MSI PIs Laura Niedernhofer (director, IBAM; professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) and Paul Robbins (associate director, IBAM; professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) are featured in a story about this work that appears in the Spring 2022 issue of the University of Minnesota Foundation’s Discovery magazine: Cleanup Duty.

Professors Niedernhofer and Robbins both use MSI resources to support their studies of aging cells. Research by MSI PI Christina Camell (assistant professor, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) is also featured in the Discovery magazine story. Professor Camell was recently awarded a Seed Grant from the University of Minnesota Informatics Institute (UMII). UMII is a partner with MSI in the OVPR’s Research Computing group.