Kick-off for collaboration on project on senescence of skin and skin cancer
The complex balance of senescence of skin and skin cancer
Morten was invited by Senior Researcher Uffe Høgh Olesen who is just starting a project on senescence of skin and skin cancer ”Investigating the balance between senescence of skin (SoS) and skin cancer”. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen will be assisting Uffe in the project with identification of aging cells in skin tissue. The purpose of the project is to investigate the complex balance between senescence of skin and skin cancer.
In time and due to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, our skin becomes fragile and more vulnerable, and the risk of developing skin cancer increases. On one hand, research shows that some treatments which reduce aging of skin also protect against skin cancer to some extent. On the other hand, research also shows that senescence cells can protect against cancer. So, by removing senescence cells from the skin, at some point you risk removing a natural barrier against skin cancer. The aim of the project is to investigate this balance between senescence of skin and skin cancer to clarify how we can treat senescence of skin without increasing the risk of skin cancer, so the risk of skin cancer is minimized through the entire life process.
A definition of aging
The scene was set in the library for an elegant project kick-off with homebake with rhubarb from Uffe’s garden and Morten’s interesting presentation. Neither disappointed.
Research in aging, in its own domain, is relatively new compared to other research areas. Therefore, at the University of Copenhagen scientists working in the field of aging use large amounts of existing data from other fields of research in their work as well as their own data, e.g., they have used AI to search through more than 30 mill. research abstracts to map the understanding of and data on age markers and their development, Morten explained.
He also explained that researchers have not yet agreed on a single definition of aging, but that he personally prefers the definition ”a time-dependent increase in risk of death”. Noting that the definition becomes relevant after the first years of life as the risk of death decreases from birth and up to the age of five.
Morten elaborated that aging is caused by changes in our DNA and that with time the order of the tissue cells deteriorates, and the cells mutate or become flawed. The two major factors impacting the aging processes are our own metabolism and the environment around us.
Interesting differences in aging
Morten explained about cell nucleus morphology, DNA methylation and differences in aging. Among other facts, Morten highlighted that women start aging earlier than men, but in return age slower. That if you look younger than your chronological age, you live longer, and vice versa, you don’t live as long if you look older than your chronological age. And Morten revealed that in areas of geographic elevation where the air is thinner you see less DNA damage due to age and less illness in general.
The skin tells the story of the inside
Morten ended his presentation by saying that using new knowledge about aging it will soon be possible to accurately predict the risk of developing breast cancer by examining the fat tissue in the breast for senescence cells.
In some years it might also be possible to read early aging of heart and brain in the senescence of the skin. The possibility of using the outer signs as a mirror of the inner conditions makes the collaboration with Morten on aging even more interesting and the perspective of understanding the balance between senescence of skin and skin cancer larger than only developing new prevention and treatment of skin cancer.
Grant of almost 2.2 mill. DKK from the Independent Research Fund Denmark
The project ”Investigating the balance between senescence of skin (SoS) and skin cancer” is supported by the Independent Research Fund Denmark with a grant of DKK 2,180,656 for Professor Merete Hædersdal’s research. The project is led and performed by Senior Researcher Uffe Høgh Olesen in collaboration with Professor Merete Hædersdal. Further project participants besides Associate Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen, are Professor Thomas Litman, University of Copenhagen, Professor Uwe Paasch, University of Leipzig, and Associate Professor Shawn Demehri, Harvard Medical School.
