Demography is the study of population characteristics such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics.  Our laboratory is interested in understanding the way populations die. By studying how different populations die we can obtain information about both causal factors of aging and the times during the life cycle at which these factors act.

C. elegans is a self-fertilizing (hermaphroditic) species and so normally populations are comprised of isogenic individuals. This species provides an ideal opportunity to separate genetic factors from environmental factors that influence aging. In our demographic studies on C. elegans we seek to answer three questions:

We recently completed the first study to investigate the effects of stochastic processes on aging (This work was published in the August 2005 issue of Nature Genetics). Using a molecular reporter that measured individual ability to respond to heat stress, we were able to isolate sub-populations of isogenic individuals that responded very differently in their reporter inductive capacity (revealing a previously 'hidden heterogeneity'). Subsequently we showed that these populations had very different remaining life spans, even though they shared identical genes and were cultured under identical environmental conditions. Our work has potential implications for human longevity specification. Specifically, on the basis of such studies we can start formulating and testing hypotheses regarding why some people live to 40 and others to 120. In the future we may even be able to use similar reporters to detect those people who are at risk of naturally dying early and then help these people live to 120 if they wish!

Institute for Behavioral Genetics
This page was last modified 24 June, 2007
srea@colorado.edu