Located at: Incuba Science Park, Gustav Wieds Vej 10, Pavillion 3, Department of Molecular Biology, Aarhus University, Denmark
Laboratory of Cellular Ageing (LCA) was formally came into existence on June 15, 1984, at the Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, with my appointment as a fresh post-doc to work in the research group of Professor Brian Clark. LCA was started with a research grant from the biotech company Senetek PLC, with an aim to do basic research on the biology of ageing, while searching for potential anti-ageing compounds. (and it met its aim by discovering the anti-ageing effects of kinetin and zeatin, which have been in use in numerous skin care products globally).
Since 1996, LCA has been affiliated with the Department of Molecular Biology, and has established itself as an internationally leading and cutting-edge research lab for education and training in the field of biogerontology. LCA work has contributed significant knowledge in biogerontology, specially with respect to our understanding of the nature of gerontogenes, regulation of protein synthesis, modifications and turnover, ageing of fibroblasts, keratinocytes, osteoblasts, bone marrow stem cells, endothelial cells, and mild stress-induced hormesis as an ageing modulatory intervention. LCA is also the place from where an international peer-reviewed journal BIOGERONTOLOGY is run by me.
- Publications from LCA can be seen in the separate page on publications on this site.
- The major commercial discovery, so far, from the LCA has been the identification of cytokinins - kinetin and zeatin - as anti-ageing molecules - (see separate section on this and other ageing interventions).
- Testing and developing the concept of hormesis as a modulator of ageing has been another successful story from LCA, which is the basis of skin care products such as VAXIN by Givenchy.
- Academically, LCA has educated and trained several researchers in the field of ageing (and many of them have now become independent and successful researchers around the world); and a list of research projects completed by various international and national students at LCA is given below:
PhDs
1. Anastassia Derventzi (Greece); Ageing: the failure of homeostasis. (July 1992; co-supervision with Brian Clark).
2. Marie Kveiborg (Denmark); Cellular and molecular mechanisms of bone loss in aging. (May 2000; co-supervision with Moustapha Kassem).
3. Karin Stendrup (Denmark); Effect of age on human bone marrow stromal cells and their potential use in gene and cell therapy. (January 2002; co-supervision with Moustapha Kassem).
4. Jeannette Justesen (Denmark); Investigations of the relationship between adipocyte and osteoblast differentiation. (May 2002; co-supervision with Moustapha Kassem).
5. Ripudaman Singh (India); Association of heat shock protein 70 genes with human aging, longevity, survival and stress response. (March 2006; co-supervision with Steen Kølvraa).
MSc/Cand.scient.
1. Jens Cavallius (Denmark); Activity estimation and properties of mammalian elongation factor 1a. (March 1986).
2. Bent Riis (Denmark); Studies on elongation factor 2 in eukaryotic protein synthesis. (August 1990).
3. Lise Svendsen (Denmark); Garlic and ageing: cellular and molecular studies on the effects of garlic on human skin fibroblasts during ageing. (April 1992).
4. Lisbeth Ankersen (Denmark); Ageing of human trabecular osteoblasts. (June 1994).
5. Lars H. Østergaard (Denmark); Applications of new two-dimensional electrophoresis: use of immobilized pH gradients as a tool for characterisation of proteins. (June 1994).
6. Hanne Norsgaard (Denmark); Ageing and differentiation in human keratinocytes. (May 1997).
7. Marianne Glenting (Denmark); Ageing of human skin cells. (May 1997).
8. Anders Olsen (Denmark); A study of the antioxidant properties of kinetin in vitro and in vivo. (March 1999).
9. Susanne Mogensen (Denmark); The protein universe of human skin keratinocytes undergoing differentiation and ageing in vitro. (August 2000).
10. Lakshman Sodagam (India); Gerontomodulatory effects of zeatin on human skin fibroblasts undergoing ageing in vitro. (August 2004).
11. Regina Gonzalez Dosal (Spain); Analysis of glycation on the proteasome during ageing using phage displayed antibodies. (January 2005).
12. David C. Kraft (Denmark); Regulation of proteasome activity by heat shock, proteasomal inhibition and oxidative stress in human cells. (June 2005).
13. Elise R. Nielsen (Denmark); Heat shock-induced alterations in MAP kinases during cellular aging in vitro. (August 2005).
14. Rehab E. Ali (Egypt); Hormetic modulation of age-related changes in human keratincytes: effects of heat shcok and curcumin. (September 2006).
15. Ulrich Berge (Germany); Modulation of differentiation of normal human keratinocytes undergoing replicative senescence in vitro. (November 2006).
16. Mari Sild (Estonia); Individual variations in the expression of Werner gene in normal individuals. (September 2007; co-supervision with Bjørn Nexø).
17. Henrik Sejersen (Denmark); Dicarbonyl-induced accelerated aging in human fibroblasts. (September 2007).
18. Tina Hansen (Denmark); Age-related changes in the proteasomal activities in C. elgans, and its modulation by heat shock. (December 2007; co-supervision with Anders Olsen, Buck Institute, USA).
19. Rune Nørggard (Denmark); Improved differentiation of telomerase-immortalised human bone marrow stem cells by mild heat stress (March 2008).
20. Iben Lundgaard (Denmark); Mutation of putative phosphorylation sites of ALG-2. (May 2008; co-supervision with Martin Berchtold, University of Copenhagen).
21. Simon Larsen (Denmark); Glyoxal-induced acclerated ageing in telomerase-immortalised human bone marrow stem cells. (June 2009).
22. Dino Demirovic (Denmark); Wound healing during cellular ageing and its hormetic modulation with curcumin. (October 2009).
Bachelor projects
1. Dino Demirovic (Denmark); Molecular basis of hormesis in ageing. (theoretical project; April 2007).
2. Renuka Jeyaras (Denmark); Nucleic acids and the damages during ageing. (theoretical project; Feb 2009).
3. Ea Vinten (Denmark); Protein modification and during ageing. (theoretical project; was due sometime in 2009....).
4. Ole Jørgensen (Denmark); Modulation of wound healing during ageing. (research project; started in late 2008, promises to give sometime...).
5. Aske Rask (Denmark); Flavanoids and polyphenols - do they have anti-ageing effects? (theoretical project; June 2010).
6. Sara Elisabeth Eriksen (Denmark); Aldring af huden: molekylær basis og mekanismer (theoretical project; August 2010)
7. Elisabeth Kristoffersen (Denmark); Hypoxia-induced hormetic modulation of angiogenesis in human endothelial cells. (research project; August 2010)
8. Majda Ashraf (Denmark); Mitochondria in ageing (theoretical project, due September 2010)
Erasmus/Socrates exchange student projects and visiting post-docs
1. Jean-Pierre Sibeijn (Belgium); Keratinocyte differentiation during ageing: a search for possible markers of keratinocyte ageing. (August 1992).
2. Diogo Sampaio e Castro (Spain); Attempts at optimising the culture medium for growth of human osteoblasts. (August 1994).
3. Isabel dos Santos Cardoso (Spain); Attempts to quantify EF-1a in cell cultures. (August 1995).
4. Regina Gonzalez Dosal (Spain); Effects of fish-, grape seed- and tomato extracts on cell proliferation and formation of 8-oxo-2´-deoxyguanosine in DNA in vitro. (June 2001).
5. Mari Sild (Estonia); Association of successful ageing with genomic maintenance and stress response: studies on WRN and HSP70 genes. (May 2005).
6. Ulrich Berge (Germany); Kinetin-indcued differentation of normal human keratinocytes undergoing ageing in vitro. (July 2005).
7. Juliane Behrens (Germany); Modulating differentiation and growth of immortalized keratinocytes by calcium, kinetin, curcumin, heat shock and sugars. (July 2006).
8. Joana M.T. Magalhaes (Portugal); Glucose-mediated modulation of ageing and differentiation of human bone marrow stem cells. (September 2006).
9. Malgorzata Wierzbicka (Poland); Glyoxal-induced accelerated ageing in hTERT-immobilized mesenchymal stem cells (March 2007).
10. Weiwei Luo (Singapore); Heat shock-mediated modulation of angiogenesis in human umbilical cord vascular and microvascular endothelial cells. (July 2007).
11. Ricardo Fernandes (Portugal); Modulation of wound healing by ageing human fibroblasts by heat shock and glyoxal. (August 2007).
12. Barbara Dymek (Poland); Testing the hormetic effects of curcumin on human fibroblasts (July 2008).
Post-docs
13. Dr. Phillipe Verbeke (France) Testing the anti-ageing effects of kinetin and hormesis (1998-2000)
14. Dr. Cristovao Lima (Portugal) - visiting post-doc (2008) testing the hormetic effects of curcumin, rosmarinic acid and other potential hormetin.
