Research News

Telomere Model Predicts Cell Life Span

Using a sophisticated mathematical model describing the biophysics of the ends of chromosomes, researchers at New York University’s Courant School of Mathematics have shown they can describe how changes in the spatial organization of structures known as telomeres affect the lifespan of a cell. In addition, the model that these investigators developed can compute a cell’s lifespan based on the levels of two specific proteins in a cell: telomerase and TRF2.

 Charles Peskin, Ph.D., and graduate student Ignacio Rodriguez-Brenes conducted this study. The two researchers published their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Telomeres, the highly repetitive stretches of DNA found at the ends of every chromosome in eukaryotic cells, grow shorter as a normal cell ages, a process that eventually leads to programmed cell death, or apoptosis. In certain cells – germ cells (those that produce eggs and sperm), stem cells, and cancer cells – the enzyme telomerase maintains telomere length and these cells have an unlimited ability to replicate. In fact, adding telomerase to normal cells growing in culture extends their lifespan.

This work is detailed in a paper titled, “Quantitative theory of telomere length regulation and cellular senescence.” An abstract of this paper is available at the journal’s Web site.
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