Suspicious genes systematically scrutinised

The valuable genetic information is contained in the white blood cells. The DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is compressed to a few thousandths of a millimetre in the cell nucleus. The genetic molecules of a human cell are made up of approximately three billion components. A few of those are responsible for earlier ill health or healthy ageing, respectively, for the regenerative capacity of the cells or protection against degeneration. But which exactly are they? Extracting DNA requires chemicals, saline solutions, even a centrifuge, and many processing steps until at last an unimpressive, whitish, transparent mass wafts around in the test tube.

It only needs a tiny amount of blood to extract the hidden information from the DNA of those active and healthy long-lived individuals. The isolated DNA is then amplified by a so-called PCR machine which copies the DNA segments. The precious genetic material is stored in large freezers at -20°C at the popgen biobank in Kiel. The Research Group for Healthy Ageing has already archived more than 3000 strictly anonymised samples of long-lived individuals in the catacombs of the university hospital - one of the largest collections worldwide.
The researchers know many of the study participants. Sonja Boerm, the sociologist of the research group, interviews the seniors about their individual life stories. With tailor-made tests she also checks their physical capability and mental agility.

The highly specialised team is part of the Institute for Clinical Molecular Biology at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein. The institute investigates the genetic causes of civilisation diseases, i.e. chronic inflammatory diseases from which increasingly more people suffer, e.g. Crohn's disease, sarcoidosis, neurodermatitis, and asthma. Around 100,000 blood and tissue samples of patients complement the biobank in Kiel. All samples have been meticulously archived by the institute’s documentation experts. The aim is to use a better understanding of disease mechanisms to conduct medicine from a new angle: no longer would medicine have to only react to illness but it would be able to develop creative strategies of prevention. Preserving health instead of treating diseases to grow old in good health would mean a quantum leap for medicine.

Meanwhile, on the second floor of the institute the latest technology is being used to analyse the genetic sequences. Within a very short period of time, robots comb through the genomes of thousands of participants checking for the tiniest peculiarities. With the help of these analysing robots, biologist Almut Nebel and her team are looking for genes which they suspect are responsible for longevity. They are also searching for distinctive genes that have already been associated with certain age-related disease patterns. It's an uphill battle: 500 of these "candidate genes" have already been examined by the scientists. Only a dozen of those is among those which are scrutinized even more closely.