LysoSENS
RC Updates
Project Description
This "project" will provide a forum to introduce new research center personnel, provide interim research progress reports, conference reports, updates on the technical capabilities of our new lab, and anything else our research center personnel want to share with the SENS community.
RC Opportunities
Project Description
Information about opportunities to work at the Research Center.
Degradation of 7KC
Project Description
Atherosclerosis, the cause of most age-related heart attacks and strokes, is thought to result from the accumulation of cholesterol and in particular toxic oxysterols in the arterial lining. The quantitatively, and possibly also qualitatively most important oxysterol is 7-ketocholesterol (7KC). Thus, 7KC is justly designated as the major target of medical bioremediation. So far, LysoSENS has focused on discovering microbial enzymes capable of degrading 7KC, and one such enzyme was found. In the meantime, other groups have characterized several further enzymes degrading 7KC in different ways.
Degradation of A2E
Project Description
Various forms of macular degeneration may be caused or exacerbated by the accumulation of A2E, a toxic bisretinoid that arises in a non-enzymatic side-reaction of the visual cycle. A2E is resistant to degradation, and accumulates in the lysosomes of retinal pigment epithelial cells throughout the lifespan.
Clearing cells of age-related wastes
Project Description
To restore youthful function to cells failing in many age-related diseases, we need to purge them of stubborn wastes that accumulate during biological aging. At Rice University, SENS Foundation is funding research to identify, test, and improve the function of natural enzymes in the environment capable of degrading specific wastes, so that we can harness them to give the same ability into our cells.
