What inspired you to pursue aging research?
I have long been fascinated by how the brain integrates information from the external world. Discovering the surprising role of food sensing and decision-making processes in influencing longevity and health led me to the exciting realm of aging research. It has been a challenging journey to understand why neurons respond to certain nutrients, such as proteins, in ways that may accelerate or slow aging, but the powerful fly model provides us with the tools to answer such questions. I am particularly inspired by the potential for this knowledge to lead to novel insights and strategies that promote our health and well-being.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean, for you, to receive an AFAR grant now?
AFAR provides the vision and resources necessary to tackle the most important questions in the aging biology. In my newly established lab, we are pursuing an exciting, yet largely unexplored idea. Receiving the AFAR grant enables us to conduct bold experiments using optogenetics and metabolomics, which could pave the way for establishing an interdisciplinary framework to advance our understanding of neuronal regulation of longevity.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
What is exciting about our research is its potential impact on understanding the relationship between mental states such as hunger, satiety, happiness, and comfort, and their influence on human health and longevity. Currently, there is no established framework for rigorously studying these phenomena. My lab aims to explore these potential connections to develop a biomedical model that integrates diverse perspectives from aging, neurobiology, and systems metabolism.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
My lab aims to unravel how the ancient drive for food is encoded and how it influences longevity. For nearly a century, it has been appreciated that caloric restriction can slow aging. Recently, it has become increasingly apparent that not only calories matter, but also the neurological processes related to eating may influence lifespan and health. Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit flies, are capable of choosing what to eat, similar to humans. Using these tiny insects, we previously discovered that the decision-making process itself, irrespective of the food ingested, influences lifespan through largely unknown mechanisms. By using modern techniques such as optogenetics and metabolomics, we will manipulate specific neuron groups involved in hunger and reward to understand their impact on longevity and metabolic reprogramming. Our study will promote a better understanding of how neural signaling, along with the accompanying neurobiological and psychological processes, impacts aging and overall health.
