C. elegans models unearth molecular mechanism of human aging and disease

C. elegans is extensively used to model biological processes of human cells and tissues and have provided great insight into the mechanisms of aging. Owing to the high evolutionary conservation of genes and cellular pathways from worms to humans, C. elegans have been instrumental to elucidate molecular pathways implicated in a wide range of human diseases. Our laboratory is interested in creating novel worm models of human diseases with an emphasis on age-related pathologies, including neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders. We investigate the molecular pathways of familial Parkinson’s diseases (PD) using “knock-in” mutations in the worm orthologues of various PD genes and also develop novel models of obesity to investigate the role of overnutrition in aging and organismal fitness. This presentation will give an overview of my recent research on the impact of ubiquitin-dependent regulatory pathways on the fine tuning of stress and aging-induced signals and pathways, and it will summarize our current attempts to establish and investigate novel C. elegans models of neurodegeneration and maternal obesity.

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