After a brief stint in our lab we are sad to see Hiroki Shibuya leave for Sweden. Good luck on the next chapter of your research Hiroki!

In our paper we identified that C. elegans mutants of the histone H3K4me2 demethylase spr-5 display a transgenerational extension in lifespan. This lifespan extension was not simply a by-product of lowered reproduction but rather due to the misregulation of specific signaling pathways. We found that this transgenerational lifespan extension was dependent on chromatin regulators which control H3K4me2, H3K9me3, and 6mA. We further found that the transgenerational longevity, but not other transgenerational phenotypes of the spr-5 mutant worms, was dependent on a steroid signaling pathway involving daf-36, daf-12, and dafachronic acid.

Check out our paper: Greer EL^$, Becker B, Latza C, Antebi A, and Shi Y^$, Mutation of C. elegans demethylase spr-5 extends transgenerational longevity Cell Research 26(2):229-38 (2016) ^$ co-corresponding authors

The lab and significant others gathered to celebrate the end of 2015. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and productive new year for all!