Milky Way Tissue Project: Investigating the Signatures of Human Ageing
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Milky Way Tissue Project: Investigating the Signatures of Human Ageing
IRAS ID
273972
Contact name
Mark R Kotter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Regeneration is a fundamental physiological function required for the maintenance of a species. In mammalian tissues, regeneration can be achieved by a number of processes but is primarily dependent on the extent of injury and the cell type that is damaged. Most commonly injury will result in cell death and the mainstay of regeneration in this context is replenishing the population of cells. Ageing results in a loss of function; in the context of regeneration capacity, this is recognized to be due to a loss of adult stem cell and progenitor cell populations. By defining ageing as the confluence of multiple cellular phenotypes that restrict functionality of cells, the present work proposes to systematically investigate the signature of ageing in parenchymal stem cells in their niche. This will create a non-biased reference library that will inform future work aiming to modulate ageing targets in humans.
Patients undergoing neurosurgical and general surgical procedures at Cambridge University Hospitals will be eligible for recruitment. Brain, skin, muscle, bone, fat, gut, blood, saliva and connective tissue samples will be collected from waste surgical tissue and small additional biopsies along the direct surgical approach tract. Tissue and isolated cells or their nuclei will be used to assess gene expression profiles, epigenomic state and functional capacity across ageing. The local niche will also be analysed to determine the gene profile of supporting cells using bulk RNA sequencing. Functional assessment will include the capacity of the cells to proliferate and to differentiate, as well as investigating hallmarks of ageing, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, senescence, altered intracellular communication, genomic instability, telomere shortening, epigenetic changes, deregulation of nutrient pathways. Validation of gene expression will be performed using RNA-scope. This work has received dedicated research funding in the form of a Milky Way Research Foundation Investigator Award.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/WM/0127
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jul 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion