Scientists from the University of Glasgow are taking part in a £4.6m project aimed at understanding the role played by ‘free radicals’ in the ageing process.

The multidisciplinary study called the Proxomics Project is a joint collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Aston, and is worth £1.5m to Glasgow.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the project will focus on the development of new technologies for understanding the causes of ageing and focus on protein-oxidative damage.

We are surrounded by oxygen, key to living. However this also creates an environment that over time becomes damaging. Despite the body's protective mechanisms, this so called "oxidative damage" occurs to cells and tissues and the molecules contained within them. It is thought to be key to the mechanisms of many chronic diseases, particularly those associated with ageing, including some cancers and arthritis.

The project will monitor levels of oxidative damage at the chemical level and determine the effects of this damage on DNA as well as protein networks and signalling, metabolic response, and cumulative ageing-related phenomena.

Jon Cooper, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, said: “We aim to develop new technologies to explore oxidative damage to proteins and cellular responses to such damage.

“This will involve miniaturisation of technology and its combination with ultrasound to explore the mechanisms of damage at a single cell level.

“Cells have a number of protective mechanisms to stop oxidation occurring. However, as we age, ultimately components within our cells will oxidise and this could damage DNA but also result in other structural damage like arthritis.”

The project is part of a drive towards the goal of developing increasingly personalised healthcare that can predict and prevent disease.

The funding will support two post-doctoral researchers for four-and-a-half years and the project will finish in five years.

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 16 January 2012

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