Christian Sell
Drexel University, PA·Biology
Why do tissues lose function as we age, and can a drug slow that decline? One promising target is mTOR, a master growth-control pathway in cells; drugs that block it, such as the FDA-approved rapamycin, counter many age-related problems.
- Fields
Biology
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
- Topics
aging
longevity
mTOR
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Test whether rapamycin, a drug that blocks the mTOR growth pathway, prevents cellular senescence (permanent cell-cycle arrest) by raising levels of the long non-coding RNA H19.
- Determine whether H19 increases in response to mTOR inhibition help maintain pluripotency, the ability to form many cell types, in adult stem cell populations.
- Define H19 and related downstream targets of rapamycin as potential markers for monitoring individual responses to mTOR inhibition and as new targets for promoting healthy aging.
More about the research
But how mTOR inhibitors produce these benefits is not fully understood, which limits their safe clinical use. A key piece is cellular senescence, a state in which cells permanently stop dividing and contribute to aging in both ordinary tissues and stem cell populations.
Why it matters
Rapamycin may help prevent age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, heart failure and declining immune function in older adults. Clarifying how it acts through H19 could reveal new targets for promoting healthy aging and markers that track each person's response, supporting safer and more effective clinical use of mTOR inhibitors.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ellen Kraig
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare drug levels and biological effects of rapamycin and everolimus in healthy adults aged 65–90. A 6-week adaptive dose-finding study will test daily and intermittent dosing in both sexes.
Josephina Van Wolfswinkel
Yale University, CT·Biology
Determine how source transcripts for piRNAs, small RNAs that silence jumping genes, are generated and recognized in planarian neoblast stem cells, and how the response is kept away from important genes.
Sandeep Wontakal
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Genetics·Early-career
Identify the cis-regulatory elements, DNA control regions near the gene, that set when and where the long non-coding RNA lep-5 is expressed in C. elegans, using newly generated worm strains.
The school
Drexel University: 11 labs on PI Pages, $170M a year on research, 282 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.