Cellular Stress in Aging and Cancer

As our cells and organs are constantly subjected to a multitude of stresses most of which have life-threatening aspects, evolution has selected for sophisticated stress coping mechanisms. While these mechanisms are proficient in stress relief and repair, they are not infallible resulting in morbidities and mortality. Basic and biomedical research have made significant advances in describing stress response genes and pathways on molecular and physiological level, while being also successful in exploiting this knowledge for therapeutic purposes to combat pathologies and diseases. However, due to the variety and complexity of stresses and stress responses, it is still incompletely understood how the fate of cells, cell types, organs and ultimately organisms are shaped and determined by specific stresses. In this thesis, we focus on two major aspects of disease-relevant chronic stress: cellular senescence & aging and aneuploidy & cancer development. We aim to better understand not only their molecular signatures but also their physiological consequences using experimental mouse models. Our gained basic knowledge could help develop novel therapeutic avenues or advance existing strategies to combat aging and age-related diseases including cancer.