# Turning back biological clock: mechanisms of age reversal in a whole organism

> **NIH NIH DP2** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2024 · $1,404,000

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Reversing the negative effects of aging has the potential to delay age-related diseases and significantly improve
the quality of life in old age. In recent findings, we reported that sexual planarians of Schmidtea mediterranea
have evolved a natural solution to age reversal at the whole-body level. However, the underlying molecular and
cellular mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain unclear. In this proposal, we aim to investigate two
mechanisms that could potentially globally reverse the aged states of most cells within an organism. The first
involves examining asymmetrical age distribution during stem cell division and differentiation, which plays a
critical role in replacing differentiated and aged cells during tissue homeostasis and regeneration. The second
involves investigating epigenetic regulators that can globally modify chromatin states, leading to gene expression
changes and functional impacts on cellular physiology. Our collective goal is to identify the molecular regulators
of these processes and examine their impact on whole-body age reversal. The proposed experiments have the
potential to identify genes that are evolutionarily conserved in mammals and could ultimately contribute to
improving or inspiring anti-aging medicine in humans

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10907943
- **Project number:** 1DP2AG093207-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Longhua Guo
- **Activity code:** DP2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,404,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-15 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10907943

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10907943, Turning back biological clock: mechanisms of age reversal in a whole organism (1DP2AG093207-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10907943. Licensed CC0.

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