Biology Biology Monday Seminar

Alicia Melendez, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biology, Queens College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, will give a talk on "Autophagy in germline development and aging."

My lab studies how autophagy, a major cellular pathway for degrading long-lived proteins and cytoplasmic organelles, functions during development and aging. Prior work by us (and others) showed that several conserved pathways that control longevity require the function of autophagy genes to live long. More recently, we have found that autophagy genes are required for the germline stem cell proliferation and meiotic fidelity. We use a combination of genetic, molecular and cellular biological approaches in the genetically tractable model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, with the aim to (1) determine the role of autophagy genes in development, specifically in stem cell proliferation, and to (2) understand the mechanism(s) by which autophagy genes are required for lifespan extension. Given the evolutionary conservation of autophagy genes from C. elegans to humans, investigating the molecular mechanisms by which autophagy genes function in vivo during development and aging will lead to a better understanding of these biological processes and may lead to novel therapeutic approaches for human disease.

Persons from the Amherst College community who wish to attend should please register by sending an email request to Professor Caroline Goutte and a Zoom link will be provided.