Interview with Dr. Steven Clarke - Part 3 of 5

On January 31st, Cutting Edge Talk Show conducted an interview with Dr. Steven Clarke, a world authority on age-related protein damage and repair.
Dr. Clarke's major interest is understanding the biochemistry of the aging process. He is particularly interested in the generation of age-damaged proteins by spontaneous chemical reactions and the physiological role of cellular enzymes that can reverse at least some portion of the damage.
For over thirty years his laboratory focused its efforts on the degradation of aspartic acid and asparagine residues and the subsequent metabolism of their racemized and isomerized derivatives. His laboratory is presently determining the biological role of protein methyltransferases that can initiate the conversion of D-aspartyl residues to the L-configuration as well as the conversion of isopeptide linkages to normal peptide bonds. Such "repair" reactions may greatly increase the useful lifetime of cellular proteins and may help insure organismal survival.

Dr. Clarke presented at GTCbio's New Applications for Aging Research conference in January 2008. His presentation received highest ratings and ignited active discussion. The Cutting Edge Talk Show was moved by Dr. Clarke's outstanding speech and decided to schedule a separate interview.
The interviewers briefly touch on Dr. Clarke's work and ask questions that may be of interest to non-scientists.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• aging
• steven
• clarke
• protein
• damage
• repair
• cutting
• edge
• parker
• stem
• cells
• cancer
• telomere
• cloning
• zhavoronkov
• UCLA
• GTCbio