Studying Ageing and Disease in Laboratory Mice

Dr Paul K Potter, BSc, ARCS, PhD, FRSB, Group Leader: Disease Mechanisms and Ageing, Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK His interests lie in the genetic basis of disease, with a specific focus on age-related and chronic disease. He instigated, developed, and lead, the Harwell Ageing Screen, a large-scale phenotype-driven screen to identify genes and pathways associated with age-related disease (https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12444). He also collaborates on multiple individual projects around the themes of ageing and the genetic basis of disease. A key area of interest is ECM dysfunction and current projects include novel mutations resulting in Alport syndrome, Nephrotic Syndrome or Osteoarthritis. Dr Paull also have projects on sudden cardiac death, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy arising from mitochondrial dysfunction, and colitis. Professor Ilaria Bellantuono, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. The focus of Professor Bellantuono's research is on ways to reduce the onset of multiple age-related disease and frailty by preventing or reversing the ageing using medicinal drugs (geroprotectors). His primary interest is in the diseases of the musculoskeletal system such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. He works closely with many colleagues and experts in different age-related diseases to identify common mechanisms (DNA repair and senescence) involved in driving ageing and compounds which targets those mechanisms and able to benefit more than one disease at the same time. He is very much interested in how we can design clinical trials to test geroprotectors to prevent multimorbidity and frailty. For this he has worked with Industrial partners and expert in regulatory affairs to reach consensus at the European level and our roadmap is here

Part 1: Concepts in Ageing
1. An overview of ageing in laboratory mice and man – Paul Potter + others
2. Factors important in modelling ageing

Part 2: Assessing Ageing in Rodents
. Lifespan and Healthspan – Paul Potter and Ilaria Bellantuono
4. Phenotyping Ageing Laboratory Mice –Dan Ehninger
5. Frailty Indices – Susan Howlett
6. Resilience Challenges

Part 3: Available Models
7. Inbred, wild type and other strains
8. Progeroid Models –Sulev Koks
9. Modifications affecting Ageing – Caloric restriction, drugs, – JR, Dan Ehninger
10. Models of Multimorbidity
11. Models of Ageing Disease – Paul Potter + Others

Part 4: Experimental Plans
12. Breeding and maintaining cohorts - All
13. Factors influencing ageing cohorts – Dan Ehninger
14. Example protocols - All