EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "From the Bush to the Bench: Novel Insights Into the Biology of Aging From the Short-Lived African Killifish"
Event details
| Date | 06.05.2024 |
| Hour | 12:15 › 13:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Alessandro Cellerino, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (IT) and Leibniz Institute on Aging, Jena (DE) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES (sandwiches provided)
Abstract:
African annual fishes from the genus Nothobranchius are small teleosts that inhabit temporary water bodies subject to annual desiccation due to the alternation of the monsoon seasons. Given their unique biology, these fish have emerged as a model taxon in several biological disciplines. Their increasing popularity stems from the extremely short lifespan that is the result of their specific life-history adaptations and is retained under laboratory conditions. Nothobranchius furzeri, the most popular laboratory species, is the vertebrate species with the shortest lifespan recorded in captivity. Their short lifespan is coupled to rapid age-dependent functional decline and expression of cellular and molecular changes comparable to those observed in other vertebrates, including humans. The availability of a sequenced genome and recent development of transgenesis makes Nothobranchius species particularly suited for investigating biological and molecular aspects of ageing and ageing-associated dysfunctions. At the same time, they also represent a unique model taxon to investigate the evolution of life-history adaptations and their genetic architecture. In this seminar I will illustrate how this model system revealed novel molecular aspects related to lifespan and brain aging, particularly for what concerns mechanisms related to proteostasis.
Bio:
Prof. Cellerino is a world leader in aging and longevity research. He is an Associate Professor and Research group leader at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (IT) and the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena (DE). Alessandro Cellerino's group focuses on studying the biology of aging using the annual fish Nothobranchius furzeri by combining comparative genomics, transgenesis and neuroanatomy.
Alessandro Cellerino trained in Biology at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (M.Sc. 1991), where he also got his Ph.D. in Neuroscience (1995). He carried out postdoctoral training in Germany at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried/Munich (1995) and at the University of Tübingen (1995-1997), before returning to Pisa, Italy, first as researcher of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (1998-1999) and then at Scuola Normale Superiore (2000-2006), where he started his own lab as Assistant in 2010 and has been Associate Professor since 2016. In 2006 Cellerino also joined the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena (DE), first as Visiting Research Scientist (2006-2007), then as Junior Group Leader (2007-2009). Since 2020, Alessandro Cellerino is holder of a prestigious Leibniz Chair at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
Abstract:
African annual fishes from the genus Nothobranchius are small teleosts that inhabit temporary water bodies subject to annual desiccation due to the alternation of the monsoon seasons. Given their unique biology, these fish have emerged as a model taxon in several biological disciplines. Their increasing popularity stems from the extremely short lifespan that is the result of their specific life-history adaptations and is retained under laboratory conditions. Nothobranchius furzeri, the most popular laboratory species, is the vertebrate species with the shortest lifespan recorded in captivity. Their short lifespan is coupled to rapid age-dependent functional decline and expression of cellular and molecular changes comparable to those observed in other vertebrates, including humans. The availability of a sequenced genome and recent development of transgenesis makes Nothobranchius species particularly suited for investigating biological and molecular aspects of ageing and ageing-associated dysfunctions. At the same time, they also represent a unique model taxon to investigate the evolution of life-history adaptations and their genetic architecture. In this seminar I will illustrate how this model system revealed novel molecular aspects related to lifespan and brain aging, particularly for what concerns mechanisms related to proteostasis.
Bio:
Prof. Cellerino is a world leader in aging and longevity research. He is an Associate Professor and Research group leader at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (IT) and the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena (DE). Alessandro Cellerino's group focuses on studying the biology of aging using the annual fish Nothobranchius furzeri by combining comparative genomics, transgenesis and neuroanatomy.
Alessandro Cellerino trained in Biology at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (M.Sc. 1991), where he also got his Ph.D. in Neuroscience (1995). He carried out postdoctoral training in Germany at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried/Munich (1995) and at the University of Tübingen (1995-1997), before returning to Pisa, Italy, first as researcher of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (1998-1999) and then at Scuola Normale Superiore (2000-2006), where he started his own lab as Assistant in 2010 and has been Associate Professor since 2016. In 2006 Cellerino also joined the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena (DE), first as Visiting Research Scientist (2006-2007), then as Junior Group Leader (2007-2009). Since 2020, Alessandro Cellerino is holder of a prestigious Leibniz Chair at the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Gioele La Manno, EPFL
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD