Lifespan Research
Lifespan can be measured in several ways. One frequent metric is the median age animals attain before death in a particular study or in the wild, referred to as the median lifespan. However, this measure is exquisitely sensitive to environmental conditions such as population density, access to food/water/veterinary care, predation, exposure, and infection. In contrast, maximum lifespan for a given species is relatively insensitive to these factors and represents the oldest attainable age individuals from a species can survive to under optimal conditions. Comparing the maximum lifespan between species reveals an incredible pattern of diversity, with several independent clades of exceptionally long and short-lived species that arose throughout the evolution of vertebrates. The Baker Lab is fascinated by this vast array of lifespans and is currently investigating the underlying genetic factors contributing to lifespan determination. The long-term goal of our work is to identify the genes and pathways involved in lifespan regulation between vertebrates, such that these pathways may be targeted to improve human health.
Our laboratory has three major projects in this area:
-
Identifying the protein coding variants that permit long lifespan in vertebrates using comparative genomics.
-
Measuring the chromatin accessibility and gene expression differences between long and short-lived species in order to identify non-coding variation that modulates lifespan.
-
Following up these two -omic approaches with biochemistry, cell biology, and animal models to demonstrate the causality of identified variants on lifespan and/or studying their effects on pathways implicated in aging.