scientist
by that motto human being so I will age
and I will die one day
not today and hopefully not tomorrow but
one day I will be dead
and I always told myself if I can live
up to 90 years be healthy happy brain
function is alive and I gonna die
on the day after my 90th birthday I’m
the happiest person on this planet in
that I start thinking about it you know
if I can stay healthy I’ll 290 and maybe
I could stay until healthy until 100 why
would I want to die you know there’s so
much things to do and this is what got
me thinking I love trains train stations
public transportation I really like it
and there’s a construction site for a
high-speed train tracks close to where I
live and now they cover defenses to the
construction site with infotainment
that’s the new thing you know if you
work through and is displayed novel
train concepts of the future like this
one that also hyper loops on display and
all of that everything futuristic and
then I said ever think my gosh I would
like to see which one the concepts will
come true in a couple of years maybe in
50 years and I would like to see that I
would like to stay alive or know which
train I’m gonna ride in 50 years and now
also like I also like Rockets really
Rockets okay
so I would like to see Rockets flying
people to Mars I really like see that
okay same and also as you know I’m a
scientist I really would like to see
what science brings us in the next
couple of years you know still my
curiosity and and and be able to
experience that and if I could hold on
to my health
would I not want to be long around the
people I really love that I cherish
maybe even those are the people that
challenge me
and I think we have all that in common
there’s something about future in the
future that we would like to see
encounter feel or be with that has
meaning to us and that would be worth
living for longer if you could do that
in good health so mother nature is
actually pretty cool she starts to
fulfill in part these dreams are ready
so the demographic development tells us
that a lot of people they become more
than a hundred years old in the next
couple of decades and the new normal
will be that on average people will
become 90 years old and the good thing
is you don’t have to do anything about
it it just happens that’s how the M
demography works mother nature also
forgot a small part smart piece in the
whole equation usually she does not
allow us to age in good health so you
know all about these diseases that
people get when they get older like my
grandmother or even recently my mother
that’s not good and you all know loved
ones yourself that come down with these
diseases and how much pain that is and
how much the quality of life is not
delivered so is then this concept of
becoming old and healthy staying healthy
just a fantasy or is there something
real to it can we do something about it
so my interest in this research aging
research anti-aging research started
when I was already a student so all
living organisms are made out of small
autonomous units they’re called cells
everybody I drove
might have heard about them and these
cells different type of cells form
together organs tissues and it er all
human beings and at that time I was
interested if he could make young cells
from young people even younger can we
build time machines for cells and I
still remember that very moment sitting
at my desk looking at an auto radiograph
with certain bands on it that’s how
scientists do that and the certain
pattern told me yes it is possible it is
possible to make young cells younger and
although at that time again was only
young cells making younger they got me
hooked on this topic I think we can
build time machines for cells so when I
became an independent researcher I then
started to dream about the ultimate time
machine can we made eight cells younger
can we really achieve that can we build
time machines that are able to do so and
I decided to focus on a very specific
type of cell which is called stem cell
somatic stem cell why’s that so specific
or so special a stem cell our body
consists out of 30 trillion cells that’s
a 10 with 13 zeros there’s a lot of
cells and every day you me you me lose
200 billions of these cells due to
attrition it’s primarily blood cells
skin cells and skin cells in your
intestine get just one hour we don’t
need them anymore and it’s dangerous to
keep them longer in the body and they
need to be replaced
200 billion it’s a 10 with 11 zeros how
do we actually do that so nature
invented also very clever system it’s
called the stem cell that allows us to
do that healthy happy
not Victor dangers come usually from
other systems to do so stem cells to
only bear the information to make all of
these cells that were gonna lose his
blood cells or this immune type of cells
and they pass on his information and
give the duty to daughters and sons of
them that then multiply very rapidly and
replace all of the cells gone but these
other daughters they also have a finite
lifespan because making this replication
very often can be dangerous you can get
cancer at the end so the stem cell keeps
to information and manages the system
it’s the manager of the tissue the work
is done by others but keeps a manager
happy and healthy for a very long time
and initially people thought that mean
pristine for forever
that would mean although year 60 or 50
you stem cells are still 20 and 30 and
that was wrong cause us stem cells start
to age they changed a function over time
and they cannot manage the system
anymore so for these blood-forming stem
cells that has real consequences when
they become older they also make all the
immune cells that means when you get
older you’d get more infections you’re
getting more likely to flu and it’s much
more difficult to get rid of the flu and
there’s still a lot of elderly people
just die from flu and complications on
top of it he also will more likely get
cancer blood that cancers when you get
aged do you do stem cells or not working
properly anymore and there’s even new
research it’s just very exciting that
would imply that problems if too hard
when you get older are – – problems –
your stem cells in the blood that form
the blood so there are real consequences
and it looks like that aging of stem
cells seems to be in the way of healthy
so why do stem cells say is how we can
explain that they age cells consists of
a lot of units parts they are very
complicated entities within a cell we
have probably a hundred thousand
different units DNA RNA proteins lipids
are they called and they usually come in
multiple copies that means a cell has
probably 1 million parts in itself 1
million a car for example is only 30,000
parts and these parts in the cell form
larger units machines that are very
critical to for example generate energy
for a cell or make new machines that
make proteins for a cell or help you to
protect your genetic information or make
its genetic information accessible so
the structure and order of these
machines and other parts in a Cell
working together is very critical
pivotal for a stem cell to function
correctly like shown here this is a stem
cell that’s real life data from the
laboratory the red one is one piece of a
machine the green one is one piece of a
machine they have order and structure
it’s like real life correct should be at
now over time what happens to the stem
cell why it’s becoming aged why is not
functional non-management anymore and
the most obvious happens it will start
to put disorder into the system ok so
it’s not that parts are damaged it’s
just that they don’t find a place
anymore where they belong to again it’s
like real life correct
okay I can tell you it’s not then the
sale the parts are all over that’s also
real-life data okay you see green is
everywhere red is everywhere okay
disorder and that sometimes like my
office and you mean overtime precisely
that happens you’ve started your books
everywhere
you cannot organize anything anymore if
somebody comes in and asks you where is
the math book
you don’t know anymore correct so while
you’re still able to do the managing
function probably in part like stem
cells will do when they age you will
take a lot of more energy to get the
system going and you definitely will
now you also learned them in a messy
correct that just told you that so and
in that I would not be able to manage my
laboratory very well anymore okay and it
turned out within H stem cells there’s
also the messy person it’s called a
protein a messy protein and we gave it a
name cdc42 you don’t have ever to
remember that but the important part is
it turned out that’s not becoming lazy
when the stem cell gets age not lazy and
not disorganized
it’s become hyperactive that’s the
interesting but hyperactive upon aging
okay
it cannot focus on stuff anymore it’s
doing this just using this and that’s
also like real life correct so we have
people running around doing a lot of
things at the end of the day nothing is
done luckily collaborators developed a
drug a compound that is able to tame the
hyperactivity of this protein it’s like
yoga for stem cells and then and then
really it settles down to the level of a
normal active protein and then the real
magic happens
it’s
yeah so this is the magic part okay when
the protein had settled in again even if
the stem cell is aged it starts to
restructure itself again all the books
put on shelves again all the machines
seem to reassemble and work together
again in a very proper function so you
can switch from this disorder to order
just by using this drug and you regain
also the useful function of this stem
cell so for example it will now produce
better immune cells again although it’s
old and will allow you to fight
infections better and this is per the
first way that biology can support
healthy aging now this finding it’s a
small one I think in research but has
broad implications for whole biology and
that would mean aging is a very simple
process initially it’s like organization
this organization and you can put that
back it’s not irreversible what happens
upon aging and you can target it by
certain biological mechanisms in this
way a drug and it’s not only lifestyle
or exercise that you can help help you
to become this healthy aging person that
mean it’s not a one-way road and we can
profit from that so healthy aging is
worth pursuing it’s not a fantasy in the
head of a couple of people mother nature
biology would allow us to do that and
data I’ve shown you is from the mouse
but is also clear that as might work for
human beings at the end allow healthy
aging for human beings and that might
mean that maybe our children or our
grandchildren will be able to see self
flying cars
or people taking extended vacation on
Mars because they can hold on to their
health and see all of that in their
lifetime in the meantime though I will
keep dreaming about fancy trains hanging
out with my great-grandchildren and will
not stop though to work on finding ways
to reorganize stem cells that at the end
will based on research today allow us to
have healthy aging for our children our
grandchildren
thank you
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]