Ageing, Health and Welfare

Overview

Ageing, Health and Welfare affects almost all species, but the rate at which it occurs varies considerably among and within species. People are now living much longer than previous generations, with ageing being the major risk factor for many diseases. This has given rise to the concept of not only our ‘life span’ but also our ‘health span’ which is the length of a disease free life. We know that the environment we live in can influence how we age, it is now increasingly recognised that the aging process and its associated disease risk can be ‘set up’ or programmed by events experienced before we are born ‘prenatal programming’ or during post natal development ie pre and peripubertal as well as in adult life. Consequently, understanding why we age, how we age, the factors responsible for variation in ageing and longevity and the impact ageing has on health and wellbeing is a major challenge in science today.

Learning outcomes

• Health of managed and wild animals, as well as of humans, is also at risk from processes and products that arise during food production, for example endocrine disruptors and animal and human digestive end products. University of Glasgow investigate effects of such substances and of various other pollutants and stressors in projects at the intersection of animal biology and veterinary medicine.

• To achieve these overall aims this research theme actively collaborates with others in this university (e.g. biomedics, clinicians, veterinarians, Glasgow Polyomics facility) and elsewhere, including Government agencies (e.g. DEFRA), external institutes (e.g. The James Hutton Institute, Moredun Research Institute) and commercial partners.