Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 24 July
12:00 - 13:00
Location
Seminar Room, Malaghan Institute, VUW
Malaghan Institute seminar
As the global population ages, chronic age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory infection are placing an increasing burden on healthcare systems worldwide. A common feature of these conditions is chronic, low-grade inflammation (“inflammaging”), which drives tissue dysfunction and contributes to the progressive loss of physiological resilience. Frailty, a clinical syndrome characterized by diminished physiological reserve, both predisposes individuals to these diseases and is itself a stronger predictor of disability, hospitalization, and mortality than chronological age. Despite its clinical importance, the biological mechanisms that initiate unhealthy aging and frailty remain poorly understood.
Growing evidence implicates the gut microbiome as a key regulator of age-associated inflammation and health, yet the causal mechanisms linking microbial dysbiosis to frailty have remained elusive. In Dr. Quin’s laboratory, she and her colleagues investigate the gut microbiome as a causal driver of unhealthy aging. Using gnotobiotic mouse models, they demonstrate that transplantation of microbiota from aged donors accelerates frailty onset in germ-free recipients, while defined frailty-associated microbial communities are sufficient to induce hallmarks of immune aging and chronic inflammation. Mechanistically, they propose that microbiota-driven inflammation promotes epigenetic reprogramming of hematopoietic stem cells, contributing to the development of clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP)—an age-associated condition that markedly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, blood cancer, and severe respiratory infection. Dr Quin will present emerging evidence linking the gut microbiome to CHIP and discuss how targeting the microbiota and inflammatory pathways may provide novel therapeutic strategies to promote healthy aging and extend healthspan.
Bio
Dr. Candice Quin is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Originally from Canada, she completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University. In 2023, she was appointed Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and in May 2026 relocated her research programme to Victoria University of Wellington. Dr. Quin’s research focuses on the biological mechanisms that drive immune ageing, with a particular focus on how the gut microbiome influences haematopoiesis and epigenetic regulation throughout the life-course. A central theme of her work is understanding the role of inflammation and a condition called CHIP, and how these work together to increase the risk of blood cancers, respiratory infections, cardiovascular disease, and frailty. Overall, her goal of identifying strategies to extend healthy immune function and reduce age-related disease risk.
Note that if you are coming from outside the Malaghan Institute, please allow time to sign-in at reception for their start at 12 noon.
Microsoft Teams meeting
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