Subarea 2: Regeneration and Homeostasis of Organs in Aging

The main goal of Subarea 2 is to identify cellular and molecular pathways used to ensure effective organ maintenance and repair, and to unravel the mechanisms of their deterioration during aging. While stem cells are important for organ homeostasis, this Subarea does not per se directly addresses stem cell aging but rather focusses on the following focus areas:

  • Drifts in developmental pathways limiting organ maintenance in aging,
  • Immune aging and inflammation, and
  • Systemic and micro-milieu regulators of organ maintenance, regeneration, and disease development.

Research focus of Subarea 2

Organ maintenance is regulated by local and systemic factors, which are subject to aging-associated changes. Research of Subarea 2 focuses on the following research areas: a) Genetic and epigenetic modulation of developmental pathways has been shown to contribute to progressive aging and disease. It is critical to delineate mechanisms and consequences of aging-associated drifts to better understand organ maintenance during aging. b) Immunoaging and chronic inflammation elicits negative effects through reduced immune surveillance and aberrant organ repair and maintenance; all of which contributes to the evolution of organ pathologies and diseases during organismal aging. c) Furthermore, aging-associated alterations in systemic and extracellular factors derived from metabolic changes, microbiota alterations, chronic inflammation, senescent, or damaged cells might impinge on disease development and tumor initiation.

Publications

(since 2016)

2019

  • The NF2 tumor suppressor merlin interacts with Ras and RasGAP, which may modulate Ras signaling.
    Cui* Y, Groth* S, Troutman S, Carlstedt A, Sperka T, Riecken LB, Kissil JL, Jin H, Morrison H
    Oncogene 2019, 38(36), 6370-81 * equal contribution
  • Cell cycle dynamics during diapause entry and exit in an annual killifish revealed by FUCCI technology.
    Dolfi L, Ripa R, Antebi A, Valenzano DR, Cellerino A
    Evodevo 2019, 10, 29
  • Preclinical Assessment of MEK1/2 Inhibitors for Neurofibromatosis Type 2-Associated Schwannomas Reveal Differences in Efficacy and Drug Resistance Development.
    Fuse MA, Dinh CT, Vitte J, Kirkpatrick J, Mindos T, Plati SK, Young JI, Huang J, Carlstedt A, Franco MC, Brnjos K, Nagamoto J, Petrilli A, Copik AJ, Soulakova JN, Bracho O, Yan D, Mittal R, Shen R, Telischi FF, Morrison H, Giovannini M, Liu XZ, Chang LS, Fernandez-Valle C
    Neuro-oncol 2019, 21(4), 486-97
  • Publisher Correction: Pharmacological reactivation of MYC-dependent apoptosis induces susceptibility to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
    Haikala HM, Anttila JM, Marques E, Raatikainen T, Ilander M, Hakanen H, Ala-Hongisto H, Savelius M, Balboa D, Von Eyss B, Eskelinen V, Munne P, Nieminen AI, Otonkoski T, Schüler J, Laajala TD, Aittokallio T, Sihto H, Mattson J, Heikkilä P, Leidenius M, Joensuu H, Mustjoki S, Kovanen P, Eilers M, Leverson JD, Klefström J
    Nat Commun 2019, 10(1), 932
  • Pharmacological reactivation of MYC-dependent apoptosis induces susceptibility to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.
    Haikala HM, Anttila JM, Marques E, Raatikainen T, Ilander M, Hakanen H, Ala-Hongisto H, Savelius M, Balboa D, Von Eyss B, Eskelinen V, Munne P, Nieminen AI, Otonkoski T, Schüler J, Laajala TD, Aittokallio T, Sihto H, Mattson J, Heikkilä P, Leidenius M, Joensuu H, Mustjoki S, Kovanen P, Eilers M, Leverson JD, Klefström J
    Nat Commun 2019, 10(1), 620
  • Differential effects of hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2) treatment on epitope recognition in western blotting.
    Han S, Cui Y, Helbing DL
    Anal Biochem 2019, 586, 113417
  • Age effect on thyroid hormone brain response in male mice.
    Kerp H, Engels K, Kramer F, Doycheva D, Sebastian Hönes G, Zwanziger D, Christian Moeller L, Heuer H, Führer D
    Endocrine 2019, 66(3), 596-606
  • The nuclear pore proteins Nup88/214 and T-ALL-associated NUP214 fusion proteins regulate Notch signaling.
    Kindermann B, Valkova C, Krämer A, Perner B, Engelmann C, Behrendt L, Kritsch D, Jungnickel B, Kehlenbach RH, Oswald F, Englert C, Kaether C
    J Biol Chem 2019, 294(31), 11741-50
  • Alternative NF-κB signaling controls peripheral homeostasis and function of regulatory T cells.
    Koliesnik IO, Andreas N, Thuy A, Sreekantapuram S, Haenold R, Weih F
    Immunobiology 2019, 224(5), 687-96
  • RNAi-Screening in Knochenbildenden Zellen.
    Kroll T, Ahmad M, Ploubidou A, Tuckermann J
    BIOspektrum 2019, 25, 523–526