Dominic Hall

• Bsc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences
• The Ageing Lung: Investigating telomere-associated damage in response to cigarette smoke exposure and in chronic lung disease

It has been shown that stress can cause irreparable damage to the protective structures at the ends of our DNA: telomeres.  We know that exposure of cells to cigarette smoke causes damage to telomeres and that lung diseases linked to cigarette smoking show increased telomeric damage. However it is unknown whether this damage is permanent or reparable. The first part of this research involved measuring telomeric damage in cells and mouse lung tissue following cigarette smoke exposure and short and long periods of recovery time. Telomere damage was measured by fluorescence microscopy. We found that telomere damage was decreased when tissue was allowed longer to recover. However the cell data was inconclusive. Adulthood asthma is a relatively under researched area. Therefore the second part of this research involved measuring telomere damage in lung tissue from patients who developed asthma as adults. We found that damage was increased in asthmatic patients. 

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisors: Dr Jodie Birch & Dr Joao Passos