Anglo Japanese Global Partnering Award

International scientific collaboration brings multiple benefits for the countries and scientists involved. These are both economic and technical because if scientists from different countries work together on common problems, they can achieve more collectively than working alone. Such collaboration involves sharing techniques and unique resources that help advance the shared goals of our respective nations and improve society as a whole. In this regard Japan is an important partner for UK researchers studying ageing for three reasons:

Firstly, it has the world's largest and best characterized population of patients with the rare accelerated ageing disease Werner's syndrome (WS). Werner syndrome presents an important starting point to develop translational approaches to understand ageing mechanisms and to address serious age-related diseases; this is a patient population for whom there are currently no disease-modifying treatments, but which has direct relevance to 'normal ageing'. The UK researchers bring a wealth of molecular and cellular biology to the study of WS as well as identification of novel treatments/interventions that may prove beneficial in WS patients.

Secondly, Japan is home to the world's largest number of centenarians and supercentenarians, including a unique population in Okinawa which shows exceptionally successful ageing. Japanese researchers have been collecting and storing biological materials and clinical samples from the 'super-agers', that may be suitable for collaborative study with the UK researchers on this proposal.

Thirdly, Japan and the UK have worked together in the past to repair the tendons of injured race horses, which, aside from being important in their own right, have very similar injuries to human athletes and ageing humans, so techniques that work in one are likely to work in the other.

In exchange the UK is able to supply Japanese colleagues with:

Unique anti-ageing compounds and expertise in how such drugs may work
Expertise in stem cell biology and in the analysis of the biomechanics and matrix aspects of tendons
Expertise in the 'big data' based analysis of the interaction between socioeconomic status and microbial populations that influence health
Access to animal models,such as the naked mole rat, which are not available in Japan.

Anglo-Japanese collaboration will allow UK ageing researchers to access unique human cohorts and model system resources which cannot be obtained in the UK. In addition to the opportunities for the exchange of ideas and staff through knowledge exchange programmes, a series of specific research-based actions are proposed. These include:

[1] Establishment of primary cultures of Werner's Syndrome cells to determine the feasibility of treatment through senolysis and/or senomodification in a premature ageing syndrome that provides probably the best accelerated phenocopy of 'normal' human ageing.

[2] Analysis of the microbiota of prematurely ageing patients with Werner syndrome and extremely long-lived super-agers from Okinawa to better understand contribution of the microbiome to healthy and unhealthy ageing.

[3] Analysis of senescence, senomodification/senescence reversal and ECM structure in novel animal model systems to unpick both senomodification and the dynamic interplay between cells and ECM in tissue regeneration.

[4] Establishment of collaborations between Japanese and UK clinicians, scientists and UKANet network members with experience in the design and execution of clinical trials to evaluate the feasibility of Phase I/Phase II clinical trials in the Werner's syndrome patient population.

[5] To exchange datasets and hold workshop events to exchange ideas with the Japanese ageing research community and develop a collaboration roadmap focussed around for these unique premature ageing and superageing populations to promote future collaborative fundamental and clinical research between the UK and Japan.