Does a healthy lifestyle promote cognitive performance in old age? What new therapeutic approaches can be used to extend the health span in old age? What must the environment look like so that people can age healthy and satisfied? These are just a few examples of the pressing questions that society and politics are currently posing to science. The Leibniz Research Alliance Healthy Ageing wants to provide answers.

  1. Enzyme produced in the liver promotes obesity, fatty liver disease and insulin resistance
    08/23/2017 · DIfE German Institute Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke

    In mice that are given a high-fat diet, an increased production of the enzyme DPP4* by the liver promotes an increase in body fat, the development of fatty liver disease and insulin resistance. "In combination with our observations from additional human and cell studies, these results indicate that increased DPP4 production by the liver is the cause rather than the consequence of a fatty liver and insulin resistance," says the head of the study, Annette Schürmann from the German Institute for Human Nutrition Research (DIfE), a partner of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). The research team led by Schürmann has now published its findings in Molecular Metabolism.

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  2. GSCN awards “Young Investigator Award“ for FLI-Scientist Francesco Neri
    08/21/2017 · FLI Leibniz Institute on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Institute

    Francesco Neri, PhD, research group leader at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena, receives the „GSCN 2017 Young Investigator Award“ of the German Stem Cell Network.

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  3. New therapeutic attack point: Scientists find off-switch for the mTor complex
    06/06/2017 · FMP Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie

    As the cell's molecular control center, the mTor kinase regulates cellular metabolism, growth and division. However, in cells affected by pathological change, the regulation goes array. Therefore, it would be helpful if the central control could be simply turned off to suppress insulin resistance or cancerous growth for example. Scientists at the Leibniz–Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin (Germany) succeeded in locating a crucial off-switch for the central cell control. Paradoxically, this 'off-switch' is a lipid kinase producing a product previously known for its role in the activation of mTor. The results just appeared in the high-ranking journal 'Science'. They bolster the hopes of patients waiting for new effective therapies against diabetes, obesity, cancer and a rare congenital muscular disease.

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