Can ATF-4 activity help explain the variation in ageing rate observed across different recombinant inbred mice?

The percentage of elderly in our population is increasing, with age the primary risk factor for many
diseases. Much of what we know about ageing has come from model organisms, i.e. roundworms,
fruitflies and mice. We know, that diet, genes and drugs can slow ageing in mice but we still do not
understand how this happens. We will study mice that either show slowed, normal or accelerated
ageing following reduced food intake, and examine a ‘master’protein potentially critical to slowed
ageing. We predict that if this protein is an anti-ageing factor, then it will only change in mice which
show slowed ageing.