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Bjorn Fraser Olaisen

Bjorn Fraser Olaisen

Country of origin: Norway

Subject: Epigenetics, aging, and rejuvenation

Matriculation year: 2023

I am a PhD student in Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian’s lab at the CRUK CI. My research interests are aging, epigenetics, and innovation of age-reversal/rejuvenation strategies that extend our healthy lifespan.

Aging is the biggest risk factor for many of the most common, costly, debilitating, and deadly diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (Niccoli & Partridge, 2012). A growing body of evidence suggests that improving current age-reversal methods is an exceptionally promising strategy to broadly prevent or reverse age-related diseases and decline in health (Zhang et al., 2021). The first age-reversal intervention is scheduled to be on the market by 2030. I am passionate about improving and identifying further approaches that can be used to rejuvenate cells and organs to substantially increase our healthspan so that we can do what we love for longer and solve the challenges associated with the increasing proportion of older people.

In my PhD, I will contribute to innovation of epigenomic profiling methods and apply them to an aging and rejuvenation project. The first method will combine six-letter sequencing (detects genetic DNA bases and the epigenetic DNA bases 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine) and CUT&Tag (profiles DNA-interacting proteins and epigenetic features) in a single workflow. The second method will be an adaptation of CUT&Tag that can quantify the number of cells in a sample that have features of interest at a given location.

Partial epigenetic or chemical reprogramming rejuvenates cells and understanding the underlying mechanism will speed up the development of interventions and enable us to identify new rejuvenation strategies (Gill et al., 2022, Mitchell et al., 2023). I will explore the role of various epigenetic features during age-reversal to reveal specific features or pathways that can be targeted to achieve rejuvenation and help slow, prevent, or reverse age-related diseases.

Twitter: @BjornOlaisen

LinkedIn: Bjorn Fraser Olaisen