Kaya Lab
VCU, Department of Biology
Aging, Stress Resistance, Adaptive Evolution
Fallow us on twitter: @akaya_lab
Principal Investigator
Alaattin Kaya is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Department of Biology. Alaattin is a geneticist and biochemist, interested in many aspects of biology of aging from the evolutionary and molecular genetics and biochemical perspectives. Genes and environmental factors that strongly interact to modulate observed aging patterns among different organisms has been one of his major interests. He hopes to advance understanding of the biology of aging and the fundamental relationship between genetic variation, metabolism and longevity phenotypes.
Lab Members
Vikas Gujjala: Ph.D. student, Integrative Life Sciences
Vikas is interested in uncovering the effect of genetic diversity in the target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1) activity and cellular response to rapamycin. He is aiming to understand whether perturbed TOR1 signaling cause similar phenotypic changes under age-associated stress conditions across different genetic backgrounds of same species.
email: gujjalava@vcu.edu
Naci Oz: Ph.D. student, Integrative Life Sciences
Naci's research focus centered around (1) mechanisms by which cells decode alternative epigenetic information, when intracellular NAD is depleted, (2) identification of pathways regulating NAD and ATP homeostasis.
email: ozn@vcu.edu
Lesly Turcios-Hernandez: Junior, Biology Major, UROP fellow
Lesly is an undergraduate (senior) at VCU majoring in Biology. She is a member of the yeast tetrad dissection team for Replicative Lifespan analysis and WormBot team for worm lifespan analysis. Her project involves in understanding of mitochondrial background in lifespan regulation and identification of conserved essential regulators of lifespan.
email: turcioshl@vcu.edu
Undergraduate Researchers
Morrigan McKernan: Senior, Biology Major
Morrigan is an undergraduate at VCU majoring in Biology and studying to go into medicine. She is interested in intricate connections between genomic instability and mitochondrial dysfunction in regulation of aging.
Tate McLean: Senior, Biology Major
Tate is an undergraduate at VCU majoring in Biology and studying to go into medicine. She is interested in mechanisms connecting stress resistance to lifespan regulation.
Olen Wesseh: Senior, Biology Major
Olen is an undergraduate at VCU majoring in Biology. She is interested in mechanisms regulating mitochondrial stress response.
Ivy Nasser: Senior, Biology Major
Ivy is an undergraduate at VCU majoring in Biology. She is interested in mechanisms regulating mitochondrial stress response.