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MDI Biological Laboratory identifies causes of chronic inflammation

A recent discovery has identified the cellular mechanism responsible for chronic, age-related inflammation as a change in the architecture of the cell.

BAR HARBOR — Scientists have long associated chronic inflammation with aging and an increased risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, macular degeneration and cancer. Watch Video

 A recent discovery has identified the cellular mechanism responsible for chronic, age-related inflammation as a change in the architecture of the cell.

Dr. Samuel Beck, assistant professor of computational biology for MDI Biological Laboratory, is the lead researcher on the causes of these chronic inflammatory responses, which have been dubbed “inflammaging.”

“Those genes that are not supposed to be expressed within young, healthy tissue, are being expressed,” said Dr. Beck.

Gene expression is the process by which a gene gets turned on within a cell to make RNA and proteins, according to MDI Biological Laboratory’s website.

Dr. Beck said this misexpression of genes is what leads to an increase in disease. 

“And in normal conditions this gene is not expressed, but during aging this gene can be expressed and this protein can cause the inflammation,” said Dr. Beck. 

Dr. Beck’s research also opens the door to assessing a patient’s biological age, which he said is a measure of cellular and functional health.

“We cannot delay the time, so we cannot delay the chronological age. If we can just delay the physiological age, or, biological age, probably, we can live longer in a healthy way,” said Dr. Beck.

Dr. Beck’s team will now move forward and explore whether it is possible to develop a drug to prevent these architectural changes, thus preserving the integrity of the cell and minimizing misexpression of genes, which could lead to breakthroughs in treatments for several age-related ailments.