Florey in a flash

Dr Gawain McColl Head, Molecular Gerontology laboratory

What lives in murky ponds, damp compost heaps and your neighbourhood creek or billabong? Well, it’s not a bunyip. In fact, it’s as far from a mythical creature as you could think to get. The roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, is probably the best-characterised animal on the planet.

First things first. Dr Gawain McColl’s first name is pronounced Gavin. He was born and raised in Melbourne to an Edinburgh-born father and a second generation Australian mother of Irish extraction. The father of two regularly assists people with pronouncing his Welsh (or Gaelic, depending who you ask) name.

Gawain believes that worms could help explain a question that fascinates him daily. How do we age? ‘’If I’m feeling cheesy, I’d describe myself as an immortitian.’’

So how does a researcher specialising in ageing live his life?

Gawain says he doesn’t apply his research to his lifestyle, though he does stay fit by running and swimming regularly. He also eats a balanced whole food diet.

A geneticist by training, Gawain runs the molecular gerontology laboratory at the Florey. He wants to know if ageing isn’t a trait, what is going on at a biological level? And can we intervene to come up with a drug, a compound or a lifestyle intervention that will make a diference to how we age? The answer, Gawain thinks, lies in the humble worm.

Why worms? Simple really. Gawain works with an organism that has a shorter lifespan than he does. However, we’re not talking your garden-variety worm but the one millimetre long Caenorhabditis elegans roundworm.

Yes, but why is this worm so cool? As it happens this worm was the first animal ever to have its genome sequenced, and every single cell has its own name. And because we know so much about them, they are a researcher’s dream model. This worm grows from a single cell into an adult in three days. They die of old age in two weeks.

But how do you know if you have a youthful, healthy worm? You can’t ask a worm ‘how are you feeling today?’. So he measures mobility. Like humans, ageing worms slow down, lose muscle mass and accumulate fat. These transparent worms also lose control of the way the body stores iron. This results in the excess iron being stored in tissue, including in the brain. The resulting build-up is associated with Alzheimer’s disease. His research suggests that targeting iron storage during ageing will have a significant impact on the lifespan and ‘’healthspan’’ of a worm. If his theories prove correct, there is potential for humans to live longer, healthier lives.