How Elizabeth Blackbun's Enzyme Overrides the Senescence of Cells

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Elizabeth Blackbun was the person who found an enzyme that can repair telomeres. When they get their protection for the chromosomes, when they get too short to protect the chromosome adequately, then the cell knows it's time to senesce. And so you can, ostensibly, override the senescence of cells with this stuff. "I didn't meet her," he says about his Nobel Prize-winning co-discoverer. 'But there was lots of material because she'd won a Nobel Prize'

Why should we stop ageing? Today we talk about everything to with ageing, why it occurs, why there’s renewed interest in it and what we can do about it. Sue beautifully lays out the history of longevity research, the origins of this fascinating scientific discipline and what the latest research means for you.

We’re taking a short break on the podcast this week so we’re diving into the rich archives of The Doctor’s Kitchen Podcast to resurface one of my favourite conversations from 2 years ago.

Sue Armstrong is a writer and broadcaster specialising in science, health and development issues and author of one of my favourite books on longevity, “Borrowed Time – The science of how and why we age”.

Today we discuss how Sue's career got started as well as her experience reporting on Nelson Mandela’s release from prison as well as her time spent researching HIV.

We talk about:

The origins of ageing research

The different theories of why we age

Cellular senescence

The ageing immune system

Calorie restriction and its pros and cons

And lots more

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