Vera Gorbunova | |
|---|---|
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| Spouse | Andrei Seluanov |
| Academic background | |
| Education | BSc, Saint Petersburg State University PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Rochester |
Vera Gorbunova is a biologist. As the Doris Johns Cherry Professor at the University of Rochester,Gorbunova identified high molecular weight hyaluronan as the key mediator of cancer resistance in the naked mole rat.
Gorbunova completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Saint Petersburg State University and her Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science. [1] During her doctoral studies,Gorbunova and professor Avi Levy investigated the genetic mutations of plants in comparison to mammals. [2] Following this,she completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at McGill University in the Hekimi Lab. [3]
In 2004,Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov established a research laboratory at the University of Rochester to study the evolution of tumour suppressor mechanisms in rodents. [1] Two years later,Gorbunova conducted a study which discovered that the enzyme telomerase had a more significant correlation with body mass than longevity. She revealed that one's body mass caused a greater risk of cancer than one's lifespan. [4] She continued her focus on cancer cells and co-developed a gene that produced a thousand times more protein in cancer cells than in healthy cells. In 2008,her research team stripped the protein RAD51 and replaced it with a marker protein DNA which killed breast cancer,fibrosarcoma,and cervical cancer cells with minimal effect on normal cells. [5] Following this discovery,Gorbunova focused her cancer-fighting experiments on the naked mole rat. In 2009,she published research that showed the mole rat's cells expressed a gene called p16 which prevented tumours from developing. [6] As a result of their "pioneering research on the causes of cancer resistance in naked mole-rats," Gorbunova and Seluanov won the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize. [7] She also received a 2010 Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging for "groundbreaking work that has the potential to shed light on the biological process of ageing,and could benefit from an infusion of unexpected funding." [8]
Throughout her tenure at the University of Rochester,Gorbunova's research team continued to focus on the naked mole rat as a key to understanding cancer resistance among animals. In 2013,Gorbunova and Seluanov identified high molecular weight hyaluronan as the key mediator of cancer resistance in the naked mole rat. [9] As a result of their work,the rodent was named the Vertebrate of the Year by Science Magazine. [10] She also solely received the Associations de Prevoyance Sante Longevity Research Award for her contribution to the study of ageing. [11] In 2014,Gorbunova was appointed the Doris Johns Cherry Professor [12] and began to lead an National Institute on Aging project to explore the factors responsible for longevity. [13]
During the COVID-19 pandemic,Gorbunova's research team compared the longevity and virus resistance mechanisms within bats to suggest treatments for diseases in humans. [14] She later received a grant to explore potential targets of treatments and therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. [15] Gorbunova also stepped down as co-editor of the journal Aging Cell, along with the remaining three editors in chiefs,due to their increased workloads without assistance. [16]
Gorbunova is married to fellow biologist Andrei Seluanov. [17]
Necrosis is a form of cell injury which results in the premature death of cells in living tissue by autolysis. The term "necrosis" came about in the mid-19th century and is commonly attributed to German pathologist Rudolf Virchow,who is often regarded as one of the founders of modern pathology. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue,such as infection,or trauma which result in the unregulated digestion of cell components. In contrast,apoptosis is a naturally occurring programmed and targeted cause of cellular death. While apoptosis often provides beneficial effects to the organism,necrosis is almost always detrimental and can be fatal.
The naked mole-rat,also known as the sand puppy,is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya,notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in the genus Heterocephalus.
Linda Brown Buck is an American biologist best known for her work on the olfactory system. She was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,along with Richard Axel,for their work on olfactory receptors. She is currently on the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Spalax is a genus of rodent in the family Spalacidae,subfamily Spalacinae. It is one of two extant genera in the subfamily Spalacinae,alongside Nannospalax.
The blesmols,also known as mole-rats,or African mole-rats,are burrowing rodents of the family Bathyergidae. They represent a distinct evolution of a subterranean life among rodents much like the pocket gophers of North America,the tuco-tucos in South America,or the Spalacidae from Eurasia.
The prehensile-tailed porcupines or coendous are found in Central and South America. Two other formerly recognized Neotropical tree porcupine genera,Echinoprocta and Sphiggurus,have been subsumed into Coendou,since Sphiggurus was shown by genetic studies to be polyphyletic,while Echinoprocta nested within Coendou.
Enquiry into the evolution of ageing,or aging,aims to explain why a detrimental process such as ageing would evolve,and why there is so much variability in the lifespans of organisms. The classical theories of evolution suggest that environmental factors,such as predation,accidents,disease,and/or starvation,ensure that most organisms living in natural settings will not live until old age,and so there will be very little pressure to conserve genetic changes that increase longevity. Natural selection will instead strongly favor genes which ensure early maturation and rapid reproduction,and the selection for genetic traits which promote molecular and cellular self-maintenance will decline with age for most organisms.
In cell biology,contact inhibition refers to two different but closely related phenomena:contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) and contact inhibition of proliferation (CIP). CIL refers to the avoidance behavior exhibited by fibroblast-like cells when in contact with one another. In most cases,when two cells contact each other,they attempt to alter their locomotion in a different direction to avoid future collision. When collision is unavoidable,a different phenomenon occurs whereby growth of the cells of the culture itself eventually stops in a cell-density dependent manner.
The Middle East blind mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae.
The lesser blind mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is found in Albania,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Bulgaria,Croatia,Greece,Hungary,North Macedonia,Moldova,Romania,Serbia,Montenegro,Turkey and Ukraine.
Sirtuin 6 is a stress responsive protein deacetylase and mono-ADP ribosyltransferase enzyme encoded by the SIRT6 gene. In laboratory research,SIRT6 appears to function in multiple molecular pathways related to aging,including DNA repair,telomere maintenance,glycolysis and inflammation. SIRT6 is member of the mammalian sirtuin family of proteins,which are homologs to the yeast Sir2 protein.
Aviv Regev is a computational biologist and systems biologist and Executive Vice President and Head of Genentech Research and Early Development in Genentech/Roche. She is a core member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and professor at the Department of Biology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Regev is a pioneer of single cell genomics and of computational and systems biology of gene regulatory circuits. She founded and leads the Human Cell Atlas project,together with Sarah Teichmann.
Peto's paradox is the observation that,at the species level,the incidence of cancer does not appear to correlate with the number of cells in an organism. For example,the incidence of cancer in humans is much higher than the incidence of cancer in whales,despite whales having more cells than humans. If the probability of carcinogenesis were constant across cells,one would expect whales to have a higher incidence of cancer than humans. Peto's paradox is named after English statistician and epidemiologist Richard Peto,who first observed the connection.
Rochelle Buffenstein is an American comparative biologist currently working as Research Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Previously,she was a senior principal investigator at Calico Life Sciences,an Alphabet,Inc. funded research and development company investigating the biology that controls aging and lifespan where she used the extraordinarily long-lived cancer resistant naked mole-rat as an attractive counter-example to the inevitability of mammalian aging;for at ages greatly exceeding the expected maximum longevity for this mouse-sized rodent,they fail to exhibit meaningful changes in age-related risk of dying or physiological decline. As such these rodents likely provide the blueprint for how to stave off myriad adverse effects of aging and provide proof of concept that age-related health decline can be avoided in humans.
Joao Pedro De Magalhaes is a Portuguese microbiologist. He studies aging through both computational and experimental approaches.
BioViva is an American biotechnology gene therapy company,based in Bainbridge Island,Washington,researching treatments to interfere in the aging process in humans.
In biogerontology,the disposable soma theory of aging states that organisms age due to an evolutionary trade-off between growth,reproduction,and DNA repair maintenance. Formulated by British biologist Thomas Kirkwood,the disposable soma theory explains that an organism only has a limited amount of resources that it can allocate to its various cellular processes. Therefore,a greater investment in growth and reproduction would result in reduced investment in DNA repair maintenance,leading to increased cellular damage,shortened telomeres,accumulation of mutations,compromised stem cells,and ultimately,senescence. Although many models,both animal and human,have appeared to support this theory,parts of it are still controversial. Specifically,while the evolutionary trade-off between growth and aging has been well established,the relationship between reproduction and aging is still without scientific consensus,and the cellular mechanisms largely undiscovered.
Rachel Elizabeth Haurwitz is an American biochemist and structural biologist. She is the co-founder,chief executive officer,and president of Caribou Biosciences,a genome editing company.
Lynne Marie Musgrave Angerer was a developmental biologist most notable for research with sea urchin development during her time spent as Head of the Developmental Mechanisms (NIDCR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She worked at the University of Rochester and received her PhD at Johns Hopkins University studying chromatin structures.
Longevity Quotient (LQ) is a simplified measure to enable normalized comparisons of various species' longevity. It shares some similarity with measures such as Intelligence Quotient. It originated with Steven N. Austad and Kathleen E Fischer's 1991 paper on mammalian aging.
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