Time Flies, How? Unlocking the Secrets of Aging

Event details
Date | 21.11.2023 |
Hour | 11:00 › 12:00 |
Speaker | Prof. Hongjie Li, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (USA) |
Location | Online |
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Event Language | English |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
Abstract:
Aging phenotypes have been observed and described for centuries and a number of different aging hypotheses have been proposed. However, several critical questions remain largely unaddressed in complex organisms. For example, do different cell types age at the same rate? If not, which cell types age the fastest across the whole body? Here I will present our recent work on the Aging Fly Cell Atlas, a single-nucleus transcriptomic map of the whole aging Drosophila. We characterize 163 distinct cell types and perform an in-depth analysis of changes in tissue cell composition, gene expression, and cell identities. We further develop aging clock models to predict the fly age. Based on this platform, we could now evaluate how pro-aging and pro-longevity mechanisms impact different cell types across the entire body. I will also share one unpublished work called the Alzheimer’s Disease Fly Cell Atlas (AD-FCA): A whole-organism, single-Cell sequencing resource on brain-body Interactions. This first whole-organism AD atlas enables us to uncover many progressive changes that likely occur in non-neurological tissue in response to AD and offers fresh insights into the realm of brain-body communication, including many previously uncharted interactions.
Bio:
Hongjie Liu is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and CPRIT Scholar in Huffington Center on Aging & Department of Molecular and Human Genetics. Before starting his lab in 2021, he was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Liqun Luo at Stanford University. He did his PhD with Dr. Henri Jasper at University of Rochester and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, California. Hongjie pioneered the use of single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing in Drosophila and has been leading the Fly Cell Atlas project. His lab recently established the Aging Fly Cell Atlas for studying whole organism aging at cellular resolution. His current research focuses on applying single-cell sequencing technologies to understand whole-organism aging and inter-tissue communication during aging. His achievements have been recognized by several awards, including the Stanford Neuroscience Institute Interdisciplinary Award, NIH K99/R00 Award, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Award, Impetus longevity research Award, Ted Nash Long Life Foundation Award, and Welch Foundation Award.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/61379058136?pwd=U1FmVGZhZEI1cVYzcnA5TWlRQUNZdz09
Abstract:
Aging phenotypes have been observed and described for centuries and a number of different aging hypotheses have been proposed. However, several critical questions remain largely unaddressed in complex organisms. For example, do different cell types age at the same rate? If not, which cell types age the fastest across the whole body? Here I will present our recent work on the Aging Fly Cell Atlas, a single-nucleus transcriptomic map of the whole aging Drosophila. We characterize 163 distinct cell types and perform an in-depth analysis of changes in tissue cell composition, gene expression, and cell identities. We further develop aging clock models to predict the fly age. Based on this platform, we could now evaluate how pro-aging and pro-longevity mechanisms impact different cell types across the entire body. I will also share one unpublished work called the Alzheimer’s Disease Fly Cell Atlas (AD-FCA): A whole-organism, single-Cell sequencing resource on brain-body Interactions. This first whole-organism AD atlas enables us to uncover many progressive changes that likely occur in non-neurological tissue in response to AD and offers fresh insights into the realm of brain-body communication, including many previously uncharted interactions.
Bio:
Hongjie Liu is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and CPRIT Scholar in Huffington Center on Aging & Department of Molecular and Human Genetics. Before starting his lab in 2021, he was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Liqun Luo at Stanford University. He did his PhD with Dr. Henri Jasper at University of Rochester and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, California. Hongjie pioneered the use of single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing in Drosophila and has been leading the Fly Cell Atlas project. His lab recently established the Aging Fly Cell Atlas for studying whole organism aging at cellular resolution. His current research focuses on applying single-cell sequencing technologies to understand whole-organism aging and inter-tissue communication during aging. His achievements have been recognized by several awards, including the Stanford Neuroscience Institute Interdisciplinary Award, NIH K99/R00 Award, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Award, Impetus longevity research Award, Ted Nash Long Life Foundation Award, and Welch Foundation Award.
Zoom link for attending remotely: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/61379058136?pwd=U1FmVGZhZEI1cVYzcnA5TWlRQUNZdz09
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Maria Brbic, EPFL