Alexei Maklakov
@alexeimaklakov.bsky.social
Biology of Ageing and Life History Evolution, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
🧬🧬🧬It’s all in your DNA: damage in the DNA accumulates and drives aging. Could mending damaged DNA prolong life? News featuring the DREAM master regulator of DNA repair today in @Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Could mending damaged DNA prolong life?
Inspired by long-lived animals — and human centenarians — researchers are hunting for ways to enhance DNA repair and extend healthspan.
nature.com
A massive genomic study has linked mutations in a specific gene to an increased proportion of muscle, decreased levels of belly fat and blood sugar and a reduced risk of conditions including heart disease go.nature.com/4q03zHc
More muscle, less belly fat: mutations to a gene are linked to wide-ranging benefits
Analysis of one million diverse genomes yields mutations associated with lower risk of diabetes, heart disease and other ‘cardiometabolic’ conditions.
go.nature.com
New preprint! We looked at age-specific preferences for protein and carbohydrate in males and females, where females lay their eggs vs what larvae choose& do best on, & found unexpected parental age effects. With @eivimeycook.bsky.social @alexeimaklakov.bsky.social Wilfried Haerty& Tracey Chapman
EcoEvoRxiv@ecoevorxiv.bsky.social · 5d agoAge-related shifts in dietary and oviposition preferences and steep costs of modest parental ageing in Drosophila melanogaster doi.org/10.32942/X26...
Do all traits age together? A long-term study of wild Seychelles warblers shows ageing is surprisingly asynchronous, with some traits senescing while others remain unchanged. doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Trade-offs Between Intergenerational and Transgenerational Effects: experimental data and demographic simulation model of multigenerational trade-offs in evolution: academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Evolutionary trade-offs between intergenerational and transgenerational fitness effects
Abstract. Intergenerational and transgenerational fitness effects can shape evolutionary processes. Theoretically, however, intergenerational and transgene
academic.oup.com
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Modulating IL-11-dependent matrix stiffness to delay ovarian aging - Nature Aging
The ovarian stroma becomes increasingly stiff with age, impairing ovarian function. The mechanisms that underlie this process are only partly understood. Here, the authors show that IL-11, which is el...
nature.com
Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch
Mammals display prominent diversity in the ability to regenerate damaged ear pinna, but the genetic changes underlying the failure of regeneration remain elusive. We performed comparative single-cell ...
science.org
Another fantastic GRC Systems Aging conference comes to a close in Maine, USA. Thank you and congratulations to the chair and vice-chairs for organizing another incredible event, with outstanding science, networking, and discussions. My favourite conference in the field!
Sad to hear of the passing of Robert Ricklefs - a giant of Ecology who simultaneously pushed forward big ideas at multiple biological levels yet took time for detailed natural history .. McGill does a nice job summarizing his impressive contributions 🌐🧪 dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/r...
Robert Ricklefs – in memoriam
Robert Ricklefs, a giant of ecology, passed away on Sunday. It is hard to overstate the extensive impact Bob had on the field. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US,…
dynamicecology.wordpress.com
Longer human lives may be making an old evolutionary pattern harder to ignore. Late-acting harmful variants and youth-tuned pathways can now shape health on a scale selection never removed. doi.org/hb7fmz
'Selection shadow' may explain why longer lives bring more age-related disease
A review article now published in Nature Reviews Genetics brings together evolutionary theory, comparative genomics and large-scale human genetics to explain why we age and why aging rates differ among individuals and species.
phys.org
New preprint from my PhD is out! We show that loss of miR‑219 disrupts neural border gene programs and prevents neural crest specification. Excited to finally share it 🚀 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #xenopus #miRNA #genomics
MicroRNA miR-219 is required for neural border and neural crest development in Xenopus neurulas
Neural crest (NC) multipotent stem cells give rise to many tissues including most of the peripheral nervous system, pigment cells and the craniofacial mesenchyme and skeleton. During gastrulation and ...
biorxiv.org
And the press release is at www.su.se/english/news...
Social contact gives young fish larger brains - Stockholms universitet
su.se
Judith Mank@judithmank.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt turns out all that screen time disrupts brain development...in guppies. Now out @royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article....
We took ~750,000 whole genomes and found the putative mechanism by which mitochondrial DNA mutations accumulate with age in blood. Spoiler: we think these mutations arise by replication error and tag age-related clonal hematopoiesis. Read @nature.com broad.io/ob2jft
Mechanism of age-related accumulation of mtDNA mutations in human blood - Nature
Genome-wide analyses indicate that accumulation of mitochondrial DNA mutations, a hallmark of ageing, may be caused by cryptic replication errors, which act as passenger mutations that eventually become detectable with age owing to age-related somatic mosaicism, rather than oxidative damage.
broad.io
Job advert! There is microbiology lectureship at @biouea.bsky.social with a focus on non-academic impact: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/20...
Impact Lecturer in Microbiology (ATR1737) in University of East Anglia | UEA
View details and apply for this Impact Lecturer in Microbiology (ATR1737) vacancy in University of East Anglia. Faculty of Science School of Biological Sciences Impact Lecturer in Microbiology...
vacancies.uea.ac.uk
An antagonistically pleiotropic gene regulates vertebrate growth, maturity, and lifespan Great first post by @itamarh.bsky.social 😀 Very happy to contribute to this cool study!
Itamar Harel@itamarh.bsky.social · 2mo ago1/6) What if aging begins, in part, as a bargain made in youth? In turquoise killifish, editing vgll3—a gene linked to puberty-timing in humans and salmon—revealed one of the first causal single-gene examples of antagonistic pleiotropy in vertebrate aging 🧵
🚀 The new edition of Beyond Beginner R course is now underway. A few improvements this time: - @philipleftwich.bsky.social & @eivimeycook.bsky.social l as instructors -More R reproducibility examples - Quarto workflows - Handling large datasets - Integration of AI tools shorturl.at/R97jw
Book review 📚 How long can humans live? We simply don’t know go.nature.com/3QelWur
How long can humans live? We simply don’t know
Claims about the upper limits to human lifespan are characterized by hype, deficient data and shoddy science, says longevity researcher Saul Newman.
go.nature.com
"Unlike my good friends Dobzhansky and Simpson, I did not think that the only role I could take in a society was that of president." Ernst Mayr on why he became the first editor of Evolution.
Very cool to see that the forensic tool is now actively being used and the first conviction of poachers through individual identification of the poached lion is a fact. 🦁 🧬 👮 Read the whole story on our website: tinyurl.com/3vybce3b #LeoFoundation #StichtingLeo
CSI-style ‘lion DNA fingerprinting’ leads to conviction of poachers - Leo Foundation
Wildlife crime is a multi-billion-dollar industry. After drug, arms, and human trafficking, the illegal trade in wildlife is among the most lucrative forms of crime, with an estimated value of over $2...
tinyurl.com
Nature research paper: αKG-mediated carnitine synthesis drives DNA repair via histone acetylation go.nature.com/3POPIFZ
αKG-mediated carnitine synthesis drives DNA repair via histone acetylation - Nature
The metabolite αKG promotes carnitine synthesis and increases site-specific histone acetylation, thereby promoting homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair, which has potential implications for chemoresistant cancers.
go.nature.com
📣🧬 Postdoc Alert🧬📣 We are hiring a 2+ year NERC-funded postdoc at Edinburgh Uni investigating causes and consequences of sex differences in recombination in house sparrows in Norway. Informal enquiries welcome at Susan.Johnston@ed.ac.uk 🙂 Details here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Check out my first PhD paper, a model investigating life-history trade-offs and the evolution of sex differences in longevity, just out in @natcomms.nature.com! doi.org/10.1038/s414... Big thanks to Xiang-Yi Li Richter and @lottedevries.bsky.social!
Asymmetric life-history trade-offs shape sex-biased longevity patterns - Nature Communications
Males and females often live different lengths of time, but why remains unclear. Here, the authors present a theoretical model showing that trade-offs between survival and reproduction, together with ...
doi.org
Very happy to see our study on the development of an in vivo single-cell ribosome profiling strategy for the epidermis now online at @cp-molcell.bsky.social. Fantastic work by @claradure.bsky.social and all co-authors involved. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
In vivo single-cell ribosome profiling reveals cell-type-specific translational programs during aging
In vivo single-cell ribosome profiling reveals cell-type-specific translational landscapes across the epidermis and uncovers selective reprogramming of AP-1 subunit translation in aged stem cells, lin...
cell.com
Our latest work is now online in NSMB: maternal yolk carries microRNAs from the intestine to embryos, shaping gene regulation and stress resilience in the next generation. rdcu.be/fj8Er #Epigenetics #microRNA #Inheritance @pasteur.fr @devstempasteur.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu
Soma-to-germline miRNA inheritance through yolk promotes stress resilience in progeny - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
In this study, the authors use the Caenorhabditis elegans model organism to show that maternal microRNAs are delivered from the intestine to embryos by the yolk, where they regulate gene expression an...
nature.com
An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus go.nature.com/3P50GXD
At last, a pill that can prevent COVID after exposure to infected people
Drug arrives years after pandemic’s peak, but could still offer critical protection to vulnerable populations.
go.nature.com
Evolutionary genetics of ageing www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evolutionary genetics of ageing - Nature Reviews Genetics
Modern humans increasingly live long enough to experience late-life consequences of genetic and molecular systems shaped by natural selection. In this Review, the authors integrate evolutionary geneti...
nature.com
Gift link because this is important stuff. Pancreatic cancer is horrific and breakthroughs in treatment need to be shared around. Also, science. #PancreaticCancer Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/h...
How an ‘Impossible’ Idea Led to a Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough
nytimes.com
Aging can reshape the immune systems of men and women in unique, sex-specific ways. @bbparis1984.bsky.social &co argue that accounting for both sex and age is essential to advance personalized medicine. 🧪 #aging #immunity #SexDifferencesDay #WomensHealthWeek
The problem with one-size-fits-all medicine: Biological sex and the aging immune system
Aging has effects on the immune system that are similar in men and women, but also reshapes their immune systems in unique, sex-specific ways, however these differences are rarely taken into…
plos.io
