Dealing With Old Age

Join Dr Chrissy Hammond and Dr James Hodge from the University of Bristol who will talk about their fascinating age-related research and participate in some games for your chance to win some Pint of Science goodies.

Fishing for insights into skeletal ageing: osteoarthritis will affect around half of us as we age. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the changes seen in osteoarthritic joints recapitulate the normal process of embryonic skeletal development. Using zebrafish, which are translucent and in which we can watch the behaviour of cells in a functioning joint, Dr Chrissy Hammond's lab is trying to unravel how cells interpret the many signals they receive and how much of osteoarthritis is due to wear and tear and how much down to our inherited genes.

Studying age-related memory loss in fruitflies. Dr James Hodge is interested in the genes and brain mechanisms underlying memory and body clocks. Taking advantage of the fruitfly, Drosophila and its powerful genetics and short lifespan (~48 days) we can study the effect of aging on behaviour. By halfway through a fly’s life, its ability to remember halves, a process made worse by human Alzheimer and Parkinson genes. Dr Hodge's lab is trying to slow this process by genetics, drugs and diet.

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