Jan Karlseder (born September 28, 1968, in Innsbruck) an Austrian molecular biologist, is the Chief Science Officer[1] and a Senior Vice President at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

[citation needed] Karlseder discovered that telomere dysfunction plays a role in Werner Syndrome, a premature aging disease that is associated with early onset of cancer.

[12] Karlseder’s work on connecting telomere dysfunction with inflammation and cell death during replicative crisis identified ZBP1 as novel regulator of the innate RNA sensing machinery.

TERRA associates with the innate RNA sensor ZBP1, which in turn forms filaments at the mitochondrial outer membrane, where it activates its adaptor MAVS, resulting in an amplification of an interferon type 1 inflammation response.

Karlseder thereby discovered a novel tumor suppressive pathway, which removes aged cells with critically short telomeres, which would be prone to cancerous transformation.