Genome Instability has been recognized as causal factor of cancer and recently also as a major contributing factor of aging. A number of skin cancer susceptibility and progeroid (premature aging-like) syndromes are linked to defects in nucleotide excision repair (NER). NER thus provides a highly relevant experimental system to study the role of genome integrity both in cancer and in aging. Using the NER system we recently uncovered a novel link between DNA damage accumulation and the regulation of longevity assurance programs and tumor suppressor mechanisms. We are using the powerful genetic system of C. elegans to identify mechanisms through which the stochastic accumulation of damage impacts aging and genetic pathways of longevity regulation. The conserved NER mechanisms in C. elegans enable us to study the effect of persistent DNA damage in proliferative germ cell compartments as well as in somatic tissues in vivo. Our work aims at the discovery of novel genes functioning in genome integrity and longevity regulation that might be instrumental for the development of preventive therapeutic strategies for age-related pathologies as well as for the treatment of rare genetic progeroid and skin cancer susceptibility syndromes.

References

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