Publication date: Jul 12, 2023

Schumacher’s research contributes to a better understanding of the causes of hereditary gene mutations. By far the most hereditary genetic mutations in humans occur in the male germline. In humans, the long-term effects are still poorly understood. The research project will focus on understanding this faulty repair of damage in the paternal genome. In addition, the influence of the father’s age as well as the age of the female egg cells will be investigated with regard to hereditary gene alterations. We expect our Koselleck project to provide completely new insights into the causes of hereditary gene alterations. However, it is largely unknown why it is the sperm, but not the egg cells, that lead to most genetic changes in the offspring. Primarily, it will be investigated which factors influence the repair; after all, there are also completely error-free repair systems. Only after fertilisation does a repair system in the female egg cell take care of the damage, but repairs it extremely inaccurately.

Semantics

Original Article