Genetic variation and aging in fruit flies
I have opportunities available in my lab at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, at the Boston campus, to study natural variation in aging using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We focus in particular on traits related to aging, including behavior, physiology, mobility, stress resistance, reproduction and mortality. Typical projects include measuring traits in a special mapping population, the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel, and using this panel to identify genes associated with traits of interest. We also study the metabolome, a measure of the many different kinds of small molecules that make up the building blocks of all life, as a window into the evolution and underlying mechanisms of the variation that we measure.
Students will have the opportunity to work with fruit flies at the bench, to learn about the biology of aging, and if interested, to develop advanced skills in statistical modeling, using the R coding language.
The Promislow lab is a great place for undergraduates to carry out research. In the 30 years that the lab has been operating, almost 200 undergraduates have worked in the lab. We focus on natural variation in aging. Most labs study aging under very controlled conditions, in highly inbred strains. But real-world populations, like humans, are genetically variable and live in complex environments. In the Promislow lab, we try to recapitulate some of that natural variation, but in a powerful model that allows us to test hypotheses about the causes and consequences of that variation.
Aging as a concept connects so many different domains of biology, and there is considerable flexibility for students in terms of what they work on, from behavior, to physiology, to genetics, to metabolomics, to statistical modeling.
In addition to our fly work, Dr. Promislow leads a nationwide study of aging in 50,000 pet dogs. For those interested in statistical modeling, there will also be opportunities to participate in ongoing analyses on a range of aging-related topics using data from the Dog Aging Project.