Ellison Medical Foundation Sponsors Tom Tullius to Explore Role of Gene Oxidative Damage in Aging
Professor Tom Tullius has received a 2009 Senior Scholar Award in Aging” from the nonprofit Ellison Medical Foundation. The Foundation supports basic biomedical research on aging relevant to understanding lifespan development processes and age-related diseases and disabilities. The Ellison award supports a new project in the Tullius lab on genome damage and aging, particularly the development of whole-genome maps of oxidative DNA lesions at single-nucleotide resolution. Genome damage caused by reactive oxygen species has long been thought to be associated with aging and neurodegeneration. Using next-generation DNA sequencing methods and bioinformatic tools, the Tullius group will relate the damage map to the underlying genes and functional regions of the genome. The research will obtain unique new information on how oxidative damage affects the genome and thereby contributes to aging.