AGING AND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES

描述(来自申请表)：衰老和神经退行性疾病 给个人和社会带来巨大的痛苦和经济代价。 尽管人们对这些过程知之甚少，但最近的进展包括 对线虫和黑腹线虫等小型生物的遗传分析， 人类疾病基因的识别，模型的构建 老鼠的遗传操作和细胞生物学的发展已经打开了大门 分子分析的新的和非常富有成效的切入点。例如， 衰老过程长期以来被认为是被动的；然而，研究 线虫与人类的基因共同展示了衰老的荷尔蒙调节 同系物。端粒丢失在体外导致细胞衰老和基因敲除 研究表明，体内端粒丢失可能是组织衰退的原因之一。 对Prion的研究为神经退行性疾病带来了一个新的范例 涉及蛋白质构象的变化。人类遗传学已经确定 参与阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病发病机制的蛋白质 疾病。总体而言，许多以前神秘的疾病现在都知道 有特定的分子基础，可以用遗传学、细胞学 和分子方法。这些看似棘手的问题已经变成了 分析的时机已经成熟，才华横溢的年轻调查人员现在正在展示 对它们的兴趣越来越大。人口结构向老龄化转变 增加社会问题的严重性，并使培训 一流的研究人员更加迫切。作为卓越的中心 致力于培养学生和博士后研究员以及 研究衰老和神经退行性疾病，加州大学旧金山分校处于独特的地位 帮助解决这些重大的生物医学问题。在这里，我们建议创建一个 培训计划，利用加州大学旧金山分校对老龄化和 神经退行性疾病与互动环境。该计划将 促进培训和合作，关注学生和 研究衰老和神经退行性疾病的学院，目标是产卵 新的研究计划将导致更好的理解和更多 有效干预。

DESCRIPTION (From the application): Aging and neurodegenerative disease inflict great suffering and financial cost on individuals and society. Although these processes are poorly understood, recent advances including genetic analysis in small organisms such as C. elegans and D. melanogaster, the identification of human disease genes, the construction of models by genetic manipulation in mice and developments in cell biology have opened up new and highly fruitful entry points for molecular analysis. For example, the process of aging has long been considered passive in nature; however, studies in C. elegans demonstrate the hormonal regulation of aging by genes with human homologs. Telomere loss causes cell senescence in vitro, and gene knock-out studies suggest that telomere loss in vivo may contribute to tissue decline. The study of prions has led to a new paradigm for neurodegenerative disease involving changes in protein conformation. Human genetics has identified proteins that participate in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In general, many previously mysterious disorders are now known to have a specific molecular basis that can be analyzed using genetic, cellular and molecular approaches. These apparently intractable problems have become ripe for analysis, and extremely talented young investigators are now showing an increased interest in them. Demographic shifts towards an aging population increase the magnitude of the social problem and make the training of first-rate researchers all the more urgent. As a center of excellence committed to the training of students and postdoctoral fellows as well as the study of aging and neurodegenerative disease, UCSF is in a unique position to help solve these major biomedical problems. Here we propose to create a training program that takes advantage of UCSF's commitment to aging and neurodegenerative disease and interactive environment. The program will facilitate training and collaborations and focus the interests of students and faculty on aging and neurodegenerative disorders, with the goal of spawning new research initiatives that will lead to better understanding and more effective intervention.