Kaya Lab @ The University of Virginia
Aging, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Stress Resistance, Adaptive Evolution
Principal Investigator
Alaattin Kaya 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. He has also keen interest on evolution of stress resistance, mitochondrial biology and mito-nuclear communication regulating cellular homeostasis.
Lab Members
Morteza Abyadeh, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
Morteza is a postdoctoral researcher investigating the role of cellular aneuploidy state in senescence during aging and age-related disease. He applies computational and wet lab techniques on human and mouse cell culture models of human diseases to characterize the key genes and molecular pathways that drive cellular senescence, and also responsible for promoting age-related neurodegenerative diseases. By applying computational biology methods, he is also experimenting with whether those genes can be targeted to develop therapeutic interventions.
email: zkr8vf@virginia.edu
Rohil H. Tantray, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
Rohil, a postdoctoral researcher, is exploring the color perception and its neuronal and molecular mechanisms using the C. elegans model. His current project involves the careful creation of a novel sgRNA-based feeding library for 13000 C. elegans genes, ensuring their precise expression. This library will be the foundation of a comprehensive genome-wide gene overexpression study, guaranteeing the identification of modulators of aging and other phenotypes associated with neurodegenerative diseases.
email: fsb3fj@virginia.edu
Ryan Counterman Jobb: M.Sc. student, Biology
Ryan is interested in understating molecular mechanisms linking the tryptophan catabolic pathway to lifespan regulation. He is also interested in the evolutionary engineering of cells to visualize real-time mitochondrial-nuclear co-adaptation at the molecular level under various age-associated stress conditions.
email:countermanre@vcu.edu
Luretha Domah: M.Sc. student, Biology
Luretha aims to discover conserved essential gene regulators of aging using yeast and worm models. Using the power of both models she is applying genetic screens and other molecular tools to discover health and lifespan effect of increase gene dosage of essential genes.
Vikas Gujjala: Ph.D. student, Integrative Life Sciences
Vikas is interested in uncovering the effect of genetic diversity on the target of rapamycin complex 1 (TORC1) activity and cellular response to rapamycin. He aims to understand whether perturbed TOR1 signaling causes similar phenotypic changes under age-associated stress conditions across different genetic backgrounds of the same species.
email: jnw2fx@virginia.edu
Naci Oz: Ph.D. student, Integrative Life Sciences
Naci utilizes mice, cell culture, and yeast models in his research to investigate (1) mechanisms by which cells decode alternative epigenetic information when intracellular NAD is depleted, (2) identification of pathways regulating NAD and ATP homeostasis and their association with neurodegenerative diseases.
email: ozn@vcu.edu
Vedat Sari: Ph.D. student, Integrative Life Sciences
Vedat's research focuses on projects that involve understanding the effect of mitochondrial genetic background on lifespan regulation using yeast and mammalian cells. In the second interest, by using a mouse model, he also aims to understand the regulation of NAD homeostasis by gut microbiota under stress conditions.
email: qww6ur@virginia.edu
Lesly Turcios-Hernandez: Senior, Biology Major, Undergraduate Technician
Lesly is an undergraduate (senior) at VCU majoring in Biology. She is an undergraduate lab technician and a member of the yeast tetrad dissection team for Replicative Lifespan analysis and the WormBot team for worm lifespan analysis. She is also involved in a project aiming to characterize genetic regulators of mTORC1 and mTORC2 activation.
email: turcioshl@vcu.edu
Hannah Pennington: Junior, Biomedical Engineering Major, Undergraduate Researcher
Hannah is a junior undergraduate at VCU majoring in Biomedical Engineering. She assists on various projects, spanning from mTORC regulation to mitochondrial stress signaling using yeast models. She aims to investigate the intricate regulatory network of stress resistance and aging.
email: penningtonhg@vcu.edu