Dr. Zhengxin Ma is a postdoctoral researcher in the Rogers Lab. She uses C. elegans to study how dietary restriction can increase lifespan and protect against age-related diseases. She first encountered C. elegans during her graduate studies at the University of Florida, where she earned a M.S. in animal nutrition and a Ph.D. in animal microbiology, studying how to mitigate antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. She used the model to test the toxicity of bacterial toxins and chemicals. Her main research areas are Animal Microbiology and Aging.
Dr. Aric Rogers is an Associate Professor of Regenerative Biology and Medicine at MDI Biological Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2005, he began postdoctoral research at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging under the guidance of Dr. Pankaj Kapahi. His studies focused on the adaptive mechanisms responsible for lifespan extension when mRNA translation is genetically attenuated. He discovered that restricting a nutrient-responsive translation factor, while globally reducing total protein synthesis, enhanced the relative translation rates of pro-longevity genes. Furthermore, he showed that some of these longevity factors were required for increased lifespan when translation was restricted. In 2013, he started his own lab at the MDI Biological Laboratory. Currently, the lab uses the small roundworm C. elegans and the short-lived killifish N. furzeri to study how gene expression is remodeled under conditions that extend lifespan, particularly at points of regulation that occur after transcription. Genetic variations and environmental conditions that result in lifespan extension are also associated with delaying the onset of age-related diseases including diabetes, cancer, and neurodegeneration. The goal of his lab is to understand how life-extending interventions work across different species and apply what is learned to extend human health and longevity.
