Stephen Helfand, MD

Chromatin-regulated activation of retrotransposable elements - a novel molecular mechanism of aging

Many of the damaging consequences of aging, such as age-related diseases, and decline in vitality, may be due to increasing damage to the cells in our body from activation of ancient viral-like elements with age. In youth, the cells of our body effectively suppress the activity of these viral-like elements (transposable elements), but this suppression declines with age. By understanding how our cells suppress the activation of these viral-like elements we may be able to develop treatments that block or at least delay the buildup of damage to our cells, preventing or postponing many age-related diseases and extending healthy life span.

Dr. Helfand’s lab has discovered that one of the consequences of aging, in species as diverse as flies and mice, is loss of silencing of parasitic DNA sequences called transposable elements (TEs). TEs make up 45% of the human genome, and can replicate themselves and insert into new locations, causing mutations linked to age-related disorders such as cancer and macular degeneration. Dr. Helfand hypothesizes that expression and mobilization of TEs may cause many of aging-related disorders and proposes to develop therapeutic interventions in order to slow the accumulation of TE-related damage.