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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

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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 

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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 

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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

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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.

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