Kaeberlein, Matthew

We believe that an effective approach toward developing therapies for age-associated disease is to focus on evolutionarily conserved longevity factors. The rationale behind this approach is that if a particular gene functions to regulate aging in evolutionarily divergent model organisms, then there is a good chance that it will have a similar function in humans. Once these genes are identified, it will be possible to develop drugs specifically targeting the protein of interest. If these drugs increase life span or delay the onset of age-associated disease in mice, they will be good candidates for human clinical trials. We are vigorously pursuing the identification and characterization of evolutionarily conserved determinants of longevity using three model organisms: the budding yeast, C. elegans, and mice. Current projects in the lab include aging-related studies of dietary restriction, the hypoxic response, TOR signaling, and mRNA translation.