EASY SCIENCE CONFERENCE SERIES: Cancer and Aging: Getting the Balance Right
EASY SCIENCE CONFERENCE SERIES: Cancer and Aging: Getting the Balance Right
EASY SCIENCE CONFERENCE SERIES: Cancer and Aging: Getting the Balance Right
It is difficult to imagine that cancer and aging would have much in common. Aging is a normal biological process that happens to every living organism leading towards the end of life, whereas cancer is a terrible disease that strikes an unlucky few.
However, recent scientific research suggests that cancer and aging may in fact be quite related, and that at the biological level, they may in fact function in opposition. Whereas aging is caused by the decline in function of tissues and cells in the body, cancer arises from the uncontrolled proliferation and growth of cells. As to how this may happen, one idea is that it is our bodies natural defense mechanisms that may play a role. For example, our bodies have normal defense mechanisms designed to protect us from uncontrolled proliferation and cancer. But evidence now suggests that these same defense mechanisms may actually lead to aging.
In this seminar, the researcher from the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Bill Keyes, will discuss the concepts of how cancer and aging are related by similar mechanisms and some of the work he is doing at the CRG aimed at understanding how they are connected, trying to give a general scientific and non-clinical overview of both processes.
Date: 5th October 2011
Time: 7 pm
Place: Sala Mirador, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)
Address: Montalegre, 5, Barcelona
Language: English (simultaneous translation available)
Room capacity: 150 people
Information: comunicacio@crg.eu
