Follow our new series on research happening in the Department of Biology. Each story will broadly highlight a current study or papers that faculty members and graduate students have published as a result of their research findings.

The Sun Lab

“Effects of rapamycin on growth hormone receptor knockout mice”

Yimin Fang, Cristal M. Hill, Justin Darcy, Adriana Reyes-Ordoñez, Edwin Arauz, Samuel McFadden, Chi Zhang, Jared Osland, John Gao, Tian Zhang, Stuart J. Frank, Martin A. Javors, Rong Yuan, John J. Kopchick, Liou Y. Sun, Jie Chen, and Andrzej Bartke, PNAS (February 2018)

It is well documented that inhibition of mTORC1 (defined by Raptor), a complex of mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), extends longevity in mice. However, in this study, we found that in long-lived GHR-KO mice, prolonged rapamycin treatment did not further extend, but unexpectedly shortened, life span. It seems that many of the negative adverse effects of rapamycin treatment are mediated by inhibition of mTORC2.

“Longevity is impacted by growth hormone action during early postnatal period”

Liou Y Sun, Yimin Fang, Amit Patki, Jacob JE Koopman, David B Allison, Cristal M Hill, Michal M Masternak, Justin Darcy, Jian Wang, Samuel McFadden, Andrzej Bartke, eLife (2017)

Life-long lack of growth hormone (GH) action can produce remarkable extension of longevity in mice. Here we report that GH treatment limited to a few weeks during development influences the lifespan of long-lived mutant and normal control mice in a genotype and sex-specific manner.

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Learn more about the Sun Lab, our graduate students, and our research on the Department of Biology website.