Welcome back to another scientific episode of the Found My Fitness Podcast.

Today's guest is Dr. Judith Campisi, a professor of bio-jarringtoology at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging,

and a co-editor in chief of the aging journal.

So about Judy, I've been a huge fan of her work having read several of her publications and listened to her speak publicly.

What excites me about her work is that she's exploring some of the central features of aging,

especially when it comes to the role of cellular senescence in the aging process and development of cancer.

Cellular senescence is so important when we discuss aging and cancer,

because as our cells accumulate damage, which naturally happens as we age,

even as a consequence of the energy generating processes and immune cell activation,

there's only so many outcomes that we can expect.

The first possibility is that cells can die.

The next is that they can become senescent, where they stop dividing,

but stay alive all the while secreting molecules at influence surrounding tissue.

Or the worst of all possible outcomes, the cells can really go off the rails and become malignant.

What's interesting is that while accumulating senescent cells is inevitable,

there are varying strategies of how to tackle senescence,

and this is of great interest to the field of aging.

There are ways to clear out senescent cells with drugs,

or even dietary and lifestyle interventions.

Not only are there ways to kill senescent cells,

there are also ways to influence what sort of molecules they produce,

possibly limiting the inflammatory ones, even without killing them.

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