“Professor Javier Apfeld, who joined the College of Science this fall, wants to understand that aging process. With worms as his subjects, he plumbs the cellular mechanisms driving the complex protein interactions regulating lifespan, some of which—remarkably—have been conserved through evolution all the way from his microscopic Caenorhabditis elegans to us.”
Prof. Javier Apfeld asks: ‘What controls how long an organism lives?’
‘I study that question in worms, which are a great model because they live only about two weeks, so I can do experiments quickly and relatively inexpensively . . . many of the genes that affect lifespan in worms affect lifespan in other organisms.’ ” – News@Northeastern article by Thea Singer
Read the whole story here: http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2016/03/researcher-studies-worms-to-reveal-the-fountain-of-youth/
