Live Longer World

#14 Dr. Bjorn Schumacher | DNA Damage & Aging, p53 & Cancer, and DNA repair in Reproductive Cells

Live Longer World

Show Notes

My guest today is Dr. Bjorn Schumacher whose work focuses on the central role of DNA damage in the aging process. We discussed DNA damage accumulation with age, how DNA repair mechanisms play a role, how DNA damage in the reproductive cells can tell us a lot about aging, human fertility and reproductive capacity. We also discussed the role of p53 in cancer suppression, a new biological age clock being developed in his lab and how we should protect our skin from aging and thereby control DNA damage.

A lot of us have heard about the link between DNA damage and aging and this conversation really dives into it.

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DR. BJORN SCHUMACHER LINKS:

Lab Website: https://www.cecad.uni-koeln.de/research/principal-investigators/prof-dr-bjoern-schumacher

Twitter: https://twitter.com/schumacherbj

Author of the book: The Mysteries of Human Aging: Surprising Insights from a Science That's Still Young: https://amzn.to/3LyR3JU

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Live Longer World Intro

0:30 Bjorn Schumacher Intro

1:22 DNA Damage as Central to the Aging process

3:37 DNA repair with age

8:39 Premature aging; 2 distinct forms of DNA damage

14:15 How does an aging human survive with DNA damage & tamp down cancer?

18:20 Stress to reproductive cells builds up immunity in the body

24:41 Female reproduction, Menopause & DNA repair

27:46 p53 and it’s role in DNA repair

35:13 BiT Clock: New Biological Age Clock

43:59 Skin Aging and DNA damage

48:06 Stress in the intestine / gut can alter the chromosome

53:00 Germ cells are immortal

For links to DR. Bjorn Schumacher research discussed: https://livelongerworld.substack.com/p/bschumacher

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Key points summarized in the show notes for premium subscribers include:

The central role of DNA damage in the aging process

What happens to our body’s DNA repair mechanism with age?

DNA Damage in the germ cells (reproductive cells) promotes stress resistance in the body

The role of p53 in suppressing cancer and in the DNA repair process

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Thanks for listeni

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