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Tasmanian scientist searches for fountain of youth using skink tails

A skink held in a hand
Tiny DNA samples from the tails of skinks are being taken to look at how their cells age.(ABC Open: Lucy Bradshaw)
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How do lizards age, and through them what can we learn about our own ageing process?

Luisa Fitzpatrick is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania exploring this very question.

Tasmanian skinks have been studied at the university for many years and this build-up of data will inform Ms Fitzpatrick's research.

"[We] have a lot of data on them," she told Ryk Goddard on 936 ABC Hobart.

"I'm using [the data] to unpick questions of the links between climate, reproductive output and ageing."

Using DNA to see how cells age

As well as analysing previously collected data, Ms Fitzpatrick is taking tiny DNA samples from tails of the skinks to look at how their cells age.

"I'm looking at the telomeres which are little caps on the end of DNA that prevent errors in recombination.

"Every time a cell divides these telomeres get shorter and shorter.

"Once they're too short, that's when the errors happen and we start to see these signs of ageing at the organism level."

Short telomeres show in humans as things such as wrinkles, stiff joints and weaker bones — typical signs of ageing.

Young mammals, including humans, have an enzyme called telomerase which helps protect telomeres from shortening as cells replicate.

As we age, we lose that enzyme, but this is not the case with skinks, Ms Fitzpatrick said.

Fellowship to continue research with world's best

Ms Fitzpatrick has been awarded an Endeavour Fellowship to travel to Sweden to work with Professor Mats Olsson, a world leader in telomere biology.

"He has all the equipment and he knows how things work," she said.

So could Ms Fitzpatrick discover the fountain of youth hidden in the tails of tiny lizards?

"I haven't really done that much reading into humans," she said.

"I'm more interested in the animals."