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Grantee in the News: Stephen Helfand on RNA pathways and Longevity

On December 21, 2016, Nature Communications published research co-authored by 2014 Glenn/AFAR Breakthroughs in Gerontology (BIG) Award grantee, Stephen Helfand, MD, which shows the major role that an RNA pathway plays in longevity, based studying Drosphilia flies.

In A somatic piRNA pathway in the Drosophila fat body ensures metabolic homeostasis and normal lifespan, Helfand and his co-authors are “the first to show that the anti-TE activity of the piRNA pathway also operates in a normal non-reproductive body tissue, the fly fat body, and that it helps to sustain the life of the animal,” as reported in News Medical.

Read the full study here, and the related story here.

Stephen Helfand, MD, is an Associate Director for Research and Professor of Biology, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, at Brown University.



For more on Longevity, visit AFAR’s InfoAging center here.

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