Dr. Keith Blackwell, Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, will lecture in Global Health Colloquium on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

"Growth regulation mechanisms that modulate aging in C. elegans "

Work over the last 25 years has revealed an antagonistic relationship between growth regulation and aging in which healthy lifespan can be extended by inhibition of anabolic signals. Dr. Blackwell will discuss his work in C. elegans in which he and his team have uncovered growth related regulators that influence aging, and downstream processes that promote lifespan extension. He will focus on recent work indicating that the mTOR pathway controls growth and aging in part through broadly regulating alternative mRNA splicing, and that pro-longevity signals influence aging through stress defense, extracellular matrix remodeling, immunity modulation, and appetite regulation.