It was a pleasure hosting the 2025 Groningen-Jena Aging Meeting in Jena! 🎉 We aimed for a truly multidisciplinary aging conference with lively discussions & great interactions - and it worked! Huge thanks to our amazing helpers, speakers & participants for making it a success!

Can the benefits of sleep 😴 be achieved without sleeping? Our latest research says YES. Using nematodes, human cells, and mouse brain, we found that the effects of sleep and wakefulness arise from large chromatin changes that can be modulated by drugs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can the immune system be activated by imaginary germs? Study finds that visual proximity with an object perceived as infections is sufficient for triggering an immune response. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Don’t miss the chance to register for this exciting conference! I will be presenting our latest findings on the unexpected side effects of circadian genome protection (aka sleep mimetics study).

Our ability to describe aging keeps improving - which is, of course, tremendously important. Yet one key task remains: actually finding ways to reverse aging or, at the very least, slow it down safely and reliably. www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Only a few days remain until the final (extended) abstract submission deadline on July 25th! The conference is reaching capacity, and only limited spots are left. Short talk selections will be made after the deadline—don’t miss your opportunity to be part of this exciting meeting!

Unpopular opinion: Before we attempt to create immortal humans, we should first figure out how to colonize other planets - because Earth can't accommodate everyone forever with its limited resources. Until then, let’s focus on delivering healthy longevity.

A strong start toward healthy aging: study shows that early-life exercise is sufficient to extend healthspan, even after prolonged detraining (in mice). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am very proud to present you the first paper from the main research line of my group at the @mpiage.bsky.social in collaboration with my current group @molepi.bsky.social @bds-lumc.bsky.social at the LUMC, which is now published in @geroscience.bsky.social! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Proud of Prerana Chaudhari for winning the Best Talk Award for presenting this study at the annual meeting of the German Association for Aging Research (DGfA) in Ulm. Grateful for the recognition of our science by the community and hoping to share additional news on this project soon.

First, Google DeepMind put structural biologists out of work, and now it's coming for the jobs of bioinformaticians doing genome analysis: a preprint reveals AlphaGenome, the little brother of AlphaFold. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Why does eating less extend lifespan? 🧬 Mutation accumulation underpins evolution of lifespan extension by dietary restriction We often think about saving energy or recycling waste - but we show how evolution acting on mutation load can generate longer life on low food 🧵 🔗 tinyurl.com/jn5ryhxv

One week left until the abstract submission deadline. Excellent line-up of speakers discussing diverse topics on aging and longevity and 20+ slots for short talks selected from the abstracts. Don't miss your chance to join us in Jena in September!

High dietary fructose directly affects neonatal brain development and contributes to anxiety behaviours in later life by suppressing microglial phagocytosis. Fructose is a natural sugar from fruit and honey but also used as a sweetener in processed foods. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new study in three species shows taurine levels don’t decrease with age. Instead, individual differences explain most of the variation in taurine concentrations. Looks like another popular “anti-aging” supplement is losing its magic. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A few days late, but I’m happy to post our recent publication on body-to-brain signaling regulation of memory in Nature Aging:

As someone doing intervention screens that take us almost anywhere in terms of a mechanism, I can say firsthand that publishing high-impact work outside "your" research field is mission impossible due to enormous peer review bias. Still, we forge ahead. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interested in healthy aging - from fundamental mechanisms to advanced interventions? Join us September 24-26 for the Groningen-Jena Aging Meeting, featuring talks by leading experts and 20+ short talk slots selected from abstracts. Early bird registration ends on 30.06.25

🚨 Aging and Microbiome Conference 2025 📌 Jena, Germany 📆 October 28-29, 2025 ⏰ Abstract submission deadline: 31.05.2025 ℹ️ amc25.leibniz-fli.de

We have a 4-year postdoc position open in our Research Unit on proteostasis! The project explores inter-tissue regulation using advanced proteomics approaches. Collaborative & interdisciplinary environment. More details & application here: jobs-uk-koeln.onlyfy.jobs/job/pktg6ivj...

What is the best time of day for exercise? Apparently it matters: strenuous evening exercise likely disrupts sleep due to heightened sympathetic arousal. Conversely (not this study), moderate evening workouts lower blood glucose levels for healthier sleep. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🔥🔥🔥 OUR NEW PREPRINT: Slowing and reversing aging? Nature does it, here we show how! Age deceleration and reversal gene patterns in dauer diapause. @cecad.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social @uniklinikkoeln.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

4th Chromosomal Instability as a Driver of Human Disease Conference. 7-10 October 2025, Malta. Stunning location, fantastic speaker lineup - and I'll be presenting the data behind our successful path to developing sleep mimetic drugs. Don't miss it!

Chronic stress literally destroys the brain by interfering with protein and organelle quality control. Interestingly, acute stress does the opposite. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I missed something important when reading this paper the 1st time: in a cohort of 105K human participants (large enough to reflect general trends) only 9.3% (!!) achieved healthy aging. This is such a low number. Let's get to work to improve this! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A perfect model to study female reproductive longevity? - Galapagos tortoise becomes 1st time mother at the age of 97. abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/1...

Just thinking: a lot of effort is being put into eliminating senescent cells. But how about using them as a model of outstanding damage resilience, to learn from. Is someone already doing this? If not, I may think about it. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ermolaeva lab today!! Also today is my 1st day as a tenured group leader at FLI. Grateful to past and current lab members - you are truly the best. And looking forward to defeating aging together.

The current state of aging and longevity space makes me think: daring ideas are essential for progress. But selling things that can't possibly be delivered is definitely fraud. Let's not go there.

Study finds that female body takes longer time to recover from pregnancy and childbirth. Honestly, how is this even surprising? Also, the toll of sleep deprivation while caring for the newborn should not be overlooked. Any recovery stalls without sleep. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

#CIDHD unites experts on how chromosomal instability drives cancer, aging & neurodegeneration. Join discussions on DNA repair, genome maintenance & screening tools for new therapies. 🧬 Short talks will receive a registration grant -submit by May 1! More info ➡️ fusion-conferences.com/conference/184

New fundamental discovery: study suggests that cellular compartments likely have “specialized ribosomes” with unconventional protein compositions that have higher "preference" for mRNAs that are most relevant for a given compartment. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨G-JAM2025 Registration Alert!🚨 Join us in September for an exciting #aging research meeting co-organized by FLI Jena and ERIBA Groningen! We're bringing together top experts to explore aging from mechanistic insights in model organisms to human aging and interventions 1/4

Human clinical trial shows that semaglutide reduces cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption. It really turns into a drug to treat almost anything.. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

My lab at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Muenster, Germany offers postdoc positions in stem cell mechanobiology. www.mpi-muenster.mpg.de/departments/... drop me an email

It’s so nice to be able to celebrate something this week. Newest work from the group! How are nuclear contents delivered to the cytosolic autophagy machinery while maintaining nuclear integrity? Nuclear envelope gymnastics! Cool role for Dnm1/Drp1. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm often asked if I would take an anti-aging drug 💊 discovered in my lab. As of today, the answer is yes! I'm starting a new compound we identified last year, based on insights from the gut microbiome of human centenarians + many tests and screens in worms and human cells (1/2)

ProtGPS, a protein language model, cracked cellular localization code of human proteins, predicting their destination and finding pathogenic mutations that disrupt localization. Kudos to scores of wet lab biologists whose real-world data made this possible www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

More mixed press about intermittent fasting (IF): short-term IF improves glucose tolerance in adult mice, but long-term IF impairs pancreatic beta cell maturation in younger mice with effects comparable to type I diabetes. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A healthy diet that kills your hair: intermittent fasting inhibits hair follicle regeneration by disrupting normal metabolism of activated hair follicle stem cells, leading to their selective death through apoptosis. www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Human study suggests that epigenetic aging is driven by somatic mutations. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Are tattoos potential inducers of chronic inflammation? Preprint shows that tattoo ink is taken up by macrophages and triggers an inflammatory response that is detectable months later. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pre-new year news feed is full of 2024 resolutions and health and lifestyle advices for 2025. My favourite one: chew gum because (quote) "chewing gum increases the flow of blood to the head/brain". Is this even true?

Study shows that senescent cells literally sugar-coat themselves to avoid recognition and clearance by the immune system. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

It was great pleasure to speak with Ainur Mukhanbetzhanova about our work on developing molecular mimetics of healthy lifestyle, and especially our recent successful efforts in discovering molecular #mimetics of restorative #sleep youtu.be/T0d0WYbAUxE?...

✨✨The 2025 Keystone Symposium on Aging and Gerotherapeutics is coming up and early bird registration ends today! Very excited about our speaker lineup. Check it out! www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Study shows that neuronal and synaptic excitation are coupled to mitochondria via Ca2+ signaling. This coupling provides energy for memory formation and gets disrupted during aging contributing to cognitive decline. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

2 parallel studies suggest that a bile acid metabolite mediates the anti-aging effects of caloric restriction (CR) by activating sirtuins and AMPK. While healthspan data and the mechanism are impressive, the link to CR appears stretched. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thrilled to see this paper out!! 🧪 Spatial transcriptomics of brain aging and 'spatial aging clocks' identify cells that have pro-aging or pro-rejuvenating effects on their neighbors! Huge CONGRATS to Eric Sun and all authors! Fantastic collaboration with @jameszou.bsky.social! rdcu.be/d33uQ 🧵

Updated Aging Starter Packs to find people and labs who work on aging!! Aging Starter Pack 1 (already reached the maximum number!): go.bsky.app/5UXXaDA Aging Starter Pack 2 (can still add!): go.bsky.app/RfFYndJ Let me know if you'd like to be added! 😀