Multi-institutional collaboration to uncover the mysteries of senescent cells and their impact on aging and human health

Researchers at Jackson's lab are working on an ambitious research program that spans several top research institutions to study senescent cells
.
Senescent cells stop dividing in response to stress and appear to play a role
in human health and the aging process.
Recent studies in mice have shown that clearing senescent cells can delay the onset of age-related dysfunction and disease, as well as all-cause mortality
.

Can therapies that remove senescent cells (called aging therapy) also improve human health as we age? Answering this and other questions has the potential to significantly advance human health, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched an extensive research program
to that end.

The SenNet Alliance, a collaboration of institutions from across the United States, was originally launched in 2021 to form a hub for the collection and analysis of
human data.
The researchers will collect and analyze 18 tissues over the lifetime of healthy people to identify the full range of senescent cells and how they contribute to the aging process
.
The SenNet Consortium's work was recently published in
the journal Nature Aging.

Jax Professor Paul Robson, Ph.
D.
, along with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic, the University of Texas San Antonio Health Sciences Center, and the University of Connectigo Health Center, was involved in the mapping
of four human tissue types (kidney, fat, pancreas, and placenta) at the KAPP-Sen Tissue Mapping Center.
Robson's lab also leads the bioanalytical core, while the data analysis core at KAPP-Sen TMC is led by JAX Associate Professor Duygu Ucar, Ph.
D
.
, and JAX Professor Jeff Chuang, PhD.

SenNet has also grown over the past year with the addition of mouse-focused researchers, and JAX was designated SenNet's Organizational Mapping Center (TMC) in August 2022, with a four-year grant
from the National Institute on Aging.
JAX is poised to make a significant contribution
to SenNet by analyzing senescent cells in the kidneys, placenta, pancreas and heart, as well as all tissues associated with chronic aging diseases.
The team will use its genetically diverse mouse resources, including diverse populations of outbred mice, to mimic a range of molecular aging signatures, as well as specially designed inbred mice to help visualize senescent cell subsets
.

Since the three tissues (kidney, pancreas, and placenta) in the mouse JAX-Sen TMC are shared with the human KAPP-Sen TMC, these efforts are well aligned
with the JAX institution's initiative to continue constructing the human-mouse interface.
SenNet's goal is not just to build an ascented cell map in vivo and learn more about senescent cell biology
.
The potential benefits of aging therapy for aging in healthy humans are exciting, as are other possible clinical advances, such as the identification of individuals
at higher risk of age-related diseases.