UCSB Affiliates Lecture Explores How 'Cell Suicide' Protects Life

The UCSB Affiliates' popular Science Lite series returns Monday, April 25, with a discussion of how aging and lifespan can be altered to postpone death and how cell death protects life.

Joel Rothman, a professor of cellular biology, will present "Longevity, Aging, and Death---a Program, Not a Mistake," at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 21 East Constance Ave.

in Santa Barbara.

Admission is $8 for UCSB Affiliates and Chancellor's Council members and $10 for non-members.

Advance registration is recommended and can be made by calling the UCSB Office of Community Relations at 893-4388.

According to Rothman, drugs will soon exist to extend human lifespan, prolonging youthfulness and postponing death.

Though many humans fear their own mortality, there is one type of death that paradoxically works to increase our longevity---the intentional death of our cells.

Each day billions of our cells commit suicide, protecting our lives by eliminating cancerous cells, viruses and other invaders.

Sometimes, however, this "machinery of planned death" runs amok, causing degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's diseases.

Research on what causes cells to commit suicide will provide radical new treatment for many human diseases.

In addition to his professorial duties, Rothman is a member of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute and the Biomolecular Sciences and Engineering Program.

He is co-director of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory embryology course and the chair of the National Institutes of Health Molecular Genetics B Study Section.

The UCSB Affiliates Science Lite program is a series of lectures for non-scientists interested in gaining a fundamental understanding of science and technology, as well as those interested in keeping up on the myriad of advances in science.