The University of Sheffield hosts Pop-up University, an annual festival in the city to showcase pioneering research. Hannah Crane and Arwa Abugable from the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield led an interactive activity session on exploring the effects of damaging and repairing DNA
DNA is found in our cells and encodes the information required for cells to grow but our DNA is constantly exposed to various sources that can damage it. These sources can be from the environment around us, such as exposure to pollution and radiation from sunlight, or through biological processes that take place in our cells. As we age, the damage to our DNA accumulates and contributes to the onset of age related disease.
The fun, interactive session held on 18 September allowed participants to ‘meet their cells’, learn about cell repair systems, and how DNA can be protected from damage.
The research conducted by Hannah Crane and Arwa Abugable is crucial to further our understanding of DNA damage and the proteins involved in the repair process. It is hoped this research can provide valuable insight for the development of therapeutic treatments to prevent DNA impairment. These treatments could eventually help to delay or even prevent the onset of age-related diseases, helping us to stay healthy much later in life.
It is hoped that when understanding how the DNA is repaired, we can gain valuable insight for the development of options to prevent further defects in the DNA repair process. These treatments could eventually help to delay the onset of age-related diseases, helping us to stay healthy much later in life.
The Healthy Lifespan Institute brings together 140+ world-class researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of tackling the global epidemic of multi-morbidity – the presence of two or more chronic conditions – in a bid to help everyone live healthier, independent lives for longer, and reduce the cost of care.
This article showcases research from the Healthy Lifespan Institute - one of the University of Sheffield's four flagship research institutes.