Biomolecules for a Healthy Lifespan

Our disability-free life expectancy is considerably shorter than general life expectancy. So far, measures aiming to increase the lifespan spent in good health have mostly been limited to adapting one’s lifestyle. The effects of biomolecules of the primary and secondary metabolisms – which are either endogenously produced by the organism itself, or exogenously originating – on health and age-related physiological changes have not yet been studied to a sufficient degree.

© pixabay

© pixabay

© Dep. of Nutritional Sciences: Binucleated cells of elderly after lifestyle intervention

The goals of the key research area of biomolecules for a healthy lifespan are thus oriented towards (i) understanding the modes of action of biomolecules and natural products of pharmaceutical relevance in health-related biological processes at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels, (ii) examining their influence on the number of years spent in good health, and (iii) identifying new biologically active natural products and their targets. The results will help to characterise biomolecules which have a positive effect on life expectancy and possibly on the number of years in good health. Additionally, this research will help to discover the mechanisms by which these biomolecules act. This topic is being discussed as a central research area within the new Horizon Europe programme.


Research Groups

Research Group / PI Research Topic Department
Ina Bergheim Molecular Nutritional Science Nutritional Sciences
Verena Dirsch Natural Products and their Molecular Mechanisms Pharmaceutical Sciences
Gerhard Ecker Pharmacoinformatics Pharmaceutical Sciences
Elke Heiß Natural Products and Cellular Stress Resistance Pharmaceutical Sciences
Sophia Khom-Steinkellner Pharmaceutical Bioanalytics Pharmaceutical Sciences
Johannes Kirchmair Computational Drug Discovery and Design Pharmaceutical Sciences
Daniel König Sports Nutrition Nutritional Sciences
Jürgen König Regulatory Mechanisms of Hunger and Repletion Nutritional Sciences
Dorota Majchrzak Sensory Perception in Nutrition Nutritional Sciences
Karin Ortmayr Mass-Spec based Systematic and Functional Studies of Cellular Metabolism Pharmaceutical Sciences
Judith Maria Rollinger Drug Leads from Nature Pharmaceutical Sciences
Michael Schagerl Functional Ecology of Microalgae Functional and Evolutionary Ecology
Manuela Schmidt Systems Biology of Pain Pharmaceutical Sciences
Nina Schützenmeister Synthesis of Natural Products and Analogues, Development of Novel Anti-infective Compounds Pharmaceutical Sciences
Christian Studenik Drug Screening Pharmaceutical Sciences
Karl-Heinz Wagner Oxidative Stress and DNA Stability Nutritional Sciences
Marietta Zille Cerebrovascular Pharmacology Pharmaceutical Sciences
Sergey Zotchev Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Pharmaceutical Sciences