The Longevity Code in Four Letters: What Naked Mole-Rats Teach Us About Aging, with Professor Zhiyong Mao

How can long-lived naked mole-rats help us develop novel anti-aging therapies?

In this episode, we speak with Professor Zhiyong Mao from the School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, who explains how comparative biology helps to reveal the molecular secrets behind longevity in long-lived animals. We explore how naked mole-rats maintain genomic stability and delay cellular senescence through unusually efficient DNA repair mechanisms, allowing them to preserve health well into old age.

These DNA repair mechanisms are driven by a specialized version of the cGAS protein (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase) found in naked mole-rats and are the focus of a recent editorial by Prof. Mao and collaborators, published in the Chinese Medical Journal. The article is titled, “The longevity code in four letters.”
 
Guest: Professor Zhiyong Mao
Host: John Lee