BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:iCalendar-Ruby BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:Lecture / Talk / Workshop DESCRIPTION:Molecular and Computational Biology Seminar: Bérénice Benayoun\ , PhD (University of Southern California\, Leonard Davis School of Gerontol ogy)\n\n“Genomic regulation of Vertebrate aging”\n\nAbstract: The overarchi ng goal of the Benayoun laboratory is to understand how aging influences th e epigenome\, and in return\, how modulation of the epigenome can influence the aging process. We want to understand how this interaction is modulated in response to environmental stimuli and in the context of specific endoge nous factors\, specifically sex\, invertebrate organisms. Aging is accompan ied by striking changes in chromatin and gene expression across cell types and species. Yet\, how chromatin landscapes change with age and regulate tr anscription\, and how epigenomic changes in turn influence aging in respons e to external or internal cues\, is largely unknown. \n\nSuch knowledge wil l be critical to counteract the functional decline associated with physiolo gical aging\, and its exacerbation in age-related disease. A critical aspec t of our research is the use of multiple vertebrate model organisms. The sh ort lifespan of non-vertebrate model systems (e.g. yeasts\, worms\, and fli es) makes their use in experimental aging research very attractive\, and th ey have been widely used to explore genetic and environmental underpinnings of aging. However\, as a result of this experimental pragmatism\, our unde rstanding of mechanisms that regulate vertebrate aging\, including the role of vertebrate-specific genes\, organs\, and tissues (e.g. bones and blood) \, and physiological processes (e.g. adaptive immunity)\, significantly lag s behind. \n\nThese considerations led us to spearhead the de novo sequenci ng\, assembly\, and annotation of the African turquoise killifish genome\, the shortest-lived vertebrate that can be bred in captivity. Despite this c ompressed lifespan\, the African turquoise killifish display all key age-re lated phenotypes\, including age-related cognitive decline. Our work has tr ansformed the use of this organism as a vertebrate model\, and we now are a ble to leverage this powerful new model organism in conjunction to establis hed traditional models to rapidly identify novel pathways regulating aging and longevity in vertebrates. \n\nOur main cell model of study are key comp onents of the innate immune system and the inflammatory response: macrophag es\, which accomplish key tasks such as phagocytosis\, antigen presentation \, and cytokine production. Consistently\, aging is associated with increas ed macrophage infiltration into tissues. Macrophages have two main origins: tissue-resident macrophages differentiate from specific embryonic progenit ors\, whereas monocyte-derived macrophages differentiate from bone-marrow p rogenitors throughout life. \n\nResident macrophage populations exist acros s tissues. Because of their key role in inflammation and damage repair\, ma crophages are a key cell type in age-related inflammatory diseases. Specifi c ongoing research directions in the Benayoun lab focus on (i) identifying transcriptional and epigenomic changes with age and upon interventions whic h extend vertebrate longevity\, (ii) dissecting transcriptional regulation changes throughout life\, as well as underlying molecular mechanisms for th ese changes\, and (iii) understanding the regulation of aspects of aging by sex\, an important\, yet very much understudied\, factor in aging and long evity. DTEND:20191011T200000Z DTSTAMP:20260510T114537Z DTSTART:20191011T190000Z GEO:34.022631;-118.290533 LOCATION:Irani Hall (RRI)\, 101 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Molecular and Computational Biology Seminar: Bérénice Benayoun\, Ph D UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_31185249591613 URL:https://calendar.usc.edu/event/molecular_and_computational_biology_semi nar_berenice_benayoun_phd_university_of_southern_california_leonard_davis_s chool_of_gerontology END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR