About half of the mammalian genome is comprised of repetitive and mobile DNA elements. While their role in evolution and phenotype variation is well understood, their physiological function in the soma remains largely unexplored. Recent work from our lab established an important epistatic role of L1 retrotransposable elements nocoding RNA in driving the progression of pathological and physiological aging via epigenome  (Della Valle et al Sci. Trans. Med. 2022).

Complementary results from our lab indicate a positive role of L1 RNA also in homeostasis and regeneration, particularly in pathological contexts including neuromuscular and bone tissues. Altogether our work unveils novel, unanticipated physiological mechanistic roles of retrotransposon noncoding RNA in adaptive resilience and aims at the exploration of RNA based potential therapeutic strategies to ameliorate aging and related pathologies.