Telomeres and Ageing

The goal of this study is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) at the organismic level. ALT is proposed to be based on a process involving recombination although exact mechanisms are largely unknown. Our preliminary results that we isolated the permanent suppressors of telomerase deficient mutation in C. elegans confirms that ALT indeed acts at the organismic level, not just cellular level. Next generation genome analysis tools, PICH methods will be combined with classical genetic tools to reach our research goal.