Joseph S Takahashi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Physiology
Eating fewer calories, known as caloric restriction (CR), is the most effective way to extend lifespan in animals from rodents to monkeys. Yet after more than 80 years, it is still unclear why it works.
- Fields
Physiology
Genetics
Neuroscience
- Topics
circadian rhythms
caloric restriction
time-restricted feeding
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Test whether time-restricted feeding, eating only within a daily window, can extend lifespan in mice without reducing calories, building on the finding that nighttime caloric restriction raises lifespan gain from 10% to 35%.
- Test whether genetically boosting Clock, a core circadian clock gene, rescues the age-related decline in circadian gene expression and improves health and lifespan in mice.
- Test whether interleukin-1 beta (IL-1b), an inflammatory signaling molecule linked to lifespan, is needed for caloric restriction's benefits, using Il-1b knockout mice under different calorie, fasting and timing conditions.
More about the research
The team found that mice on CR change how they eat: instead of grazing around the clock, they eat all their food within a few hours each day. This suggests that meal timing and the body's internal 24-hour (circadian) clock may matter as much as calories. Aging also weakens circadian gene activity, which may in turn affect pathways tied to longevity.
Why it matters
Healthy aging is a major goal for an aging population. By showing whether meal timing, circadian clock function or inflammation through IL-1b drive the lifespan benefits of caloric restriction, this work could point to practical interventions, such as time-restricted eating or ways to restore circadian gene activity, that may extend healthspan in people.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Brian P Delisle
University of Kentucky, KY·Physiology
Identify the conserved cis-regulatory DNA elements that give cardiac ion channel genes their daily rhythm, using LumiCycle bioluminescence promoter assays, chromatin immunoprecipitation and electrophoretic mobility shift assays.
Shelley Tischkau
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, IL·Physiology
Test whether restricted feeding, limiting food intake to set times of day, can reset circadian clock function and restore adipose tissue rhythms after the clock is disrupted by chronic activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) by pollutants such as dioxins.
Shannon Bailey
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Physiology
Establish whether chronic alcohol consumption disrupts 24-hour rhythms in liver mitochondrial energy production, including the activity of cytochrome c oxidase, the rate-limiting enzyme of respiration, in alcohol-fed mice.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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