Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Old Chromosomes
11 March 2016

Old Chromosomes

As people age they start to shrivel and shrink and so, apparently, do their chromosomes. Senescence – the technical term for getting old – occurs at the cell as well as organism level. And researchers have discovered that chromosomes inside senescing cells become more compact. The computationally modeled chromosomes pictured, for example, represent a normal replicating cell (left) and a senescent one (right). Although this compaction appears to close down the genome – indeed many genes become silenced – certain genes are activated during the process. Senescence marks the end of a cell’s ability to reproduce, and while this means that tissues of elderly people can’t repair as well as those of youngsters, it also provides an inherent protection against cancer – where cells divide uncontrollably. Understanding how cells transition to senescence and which genes they turn off or on could thus aid research into cancer prevention and, on the flip side, tissue regeneration.

Written by Ruth Williams

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.