Ewald Lab, ETH Zurich ^{Research Labs}

The strategic goal is to identify novel strategies to improve human healthspan using C. elegans as a pioneering system to model the aging process because of its ease for genetic manipulation, high evolutionary conservation of genes implicated in human diseases, and short lifespan (3 weeks). Using C. elegans lifespan assays as a read-out for extension of healthspan is a tractable and fast approach for discovering novel mechanisms that confer healthy aging. Several fundamental mechanisms discovered in C. elegans have been shown to delay age-related pathologies in higher organisms, such as mice, and these mechanisms have major implications for humans aging. Hence, by using C. elegans to model the aging process group could rapidly identify strategies to improve human healthspan.