AXXAM

Webinar

“Forever young?” Targeting the hallmarks of aging

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Webinar Summary:

“Forever young?” Targeting the hallmarks of aging

(Navigating the landscape with pertinent assay models)

In a world viewing an unprecedented rise in life expectancy, the quest for new solutions to promote healthy aging becomes dominant. In 2013 the seminal paper “The Hallmarks of Aging” was published in “Cell” nominating 9 cellular events as hallmarks. To be considered as a hallmark, something must change with time, reliably cause aging, and slow down aging in its absence/manipulation. Since then, scientific breakthroughs are shedding light on molecular and cellular pathways implicated in the progression of aging and age-related diseases, and as a consequence, 3 more hallmarks, disabled macroautophagy, chronic inflammation, and dysbiosis, were recently added. The knowledge about these hallmarks opens the door to a new prospect, turning aging from a process into a target for intervention.

This webinar explores some relevant biological assays suitable for drug discovery efforts addressing the hallmarks of aging like DNA damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, loss of proteostasis, disabled macroautophagy, inflammation, thereby offering a glimpse into the tools that shape drug discovery strategies for the development of therapies to promote healthy aging and extend lifespan.

Keywords:

Hallmarks of aging; Life span; DNA damage; Mitochondrial dysfunction; Pathological aggregates; Inflammation; Autophagy; Drug discovery; High Content Screening; Metabolic pathway; Senolytic drug; Geroprotector; Cell Painting; Neurodegeneration; Cancer.

Speakers:

  • Stefan Lohmer, CEO, Axxam

  • Fernanda Ricci, High Content Screening Unit Manager, Axxam

Stefan Lohmer is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Axxam since 2001. Prior to founding Axxam, he was the Director of Bayer’s Research Centre in Milan (Italy) and the Head of Genomics worldwide for Bayer AG. In this function Stefan was responsible for generating and managing Bayer’s external genomic alliance with Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, USA). He joined Bayer at the corporate research center located at Wuppertal (Germany) in 1992. Stefan holds a degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the Albertus Magnus University in Cologne (Germany) and completed his PhD at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding in Cologne. He is an inventor on more than 20 patents and has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications. Stefan serves on the Board of Directors for Rewind Therapeutics, Libra Therapeutics, and Golgi Neurosciences as well being an Observer on the Board of Acousia Therapeutics.

Stefan is passionate about transformative science and creating companies. “Never follow the path, always set the trail!”

Photo of Fernanda Ricci

Fernanda Ricci is currently leading the High Content Screening (HCS) Unit at Axxam, bringing over a decade of expertise in screening technologies for drug discovery, particularly in imaging cell-based assays. Her journey into microscopy and cellular imaging began during her doctoral studies in Molecular Biophysics at the Physics laboratory of Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. There, she developed biosensors for cellular imaging applications like CloPhensor, for advancing high resolution imaging of analytes in living cells.

Following her PhD, Fernanda pursued post-doctoral studies at the Screening Unit of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Milan, Italy. In this role, she led the development of High Content Imaging applied to wide-genome screening, further strengthening her expertise in high-throughput screening methodologies. In 2016, Fernanda won the Grand Prize Winner of JALA & JBS Art of Science International Contest for a mosaic image of cancer colonies, derived from her publication focused on a pipeline she developed in the CellProfiler to automate the gold standard Colony Assay.

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