• Question: How would people stop DNA shortening if they could?

    Asked by Purplepenguin to Carolyn, Peter, Richard, Sara, Siana on 18 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Richard Unwin

      Richard Unwin answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hi again,

      So, following on – there are some cells, so-called stem cells, that seem to be able to ‘fix’ their telomeres becasue they make a special protein machine called telomerase. This is important in these cells, as they replace old and dying specialised cell so have to keep going. You can stop DNA shortening in the lab by making a cell make this telomerase – indeed many cancers seem to ‘turn on’ this machinery as part of their development and turning it off is a target of some new cancer medicines. However, to do this in every cell in the body would be virtually impossible – there’s just s many of them!

    • Photo: Sara Falcone

      Sara Falcone answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Can I just add a small small thing? There are some studies that show how women have longer telomeres than men and that is why they live a little bit longer (in average).

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