Adam Dobson: Nutrition, transcription, and lifelong health

Adam Dobson, UKRI Future Leadership Fellow

Institute for Molecular Cell & Systems Biology, University of Glasgow 

Seminar series of the Institute for Molecular, Cell & Systems Biology

Wednesday 22nd January 2020

Sketchnote of Adam's talk

More info about Adam and his work: https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/biology/staff/adamdobson/

Bio: 

Adam did his PhD on evolution of insect infection in Sheffield. His first postdoc, at Cornell University, was focussed on how bacteria living in the gut benefit host health. All signs pointed towards the molecular networks that signal nutrient availability, which led to a second postdoc at UCL to study those networks directly, and their impact on lifelong health and ageing. This work showed the importance of the interaction between nutrients and specific tissues: a theme that was developed further in a fellowship at the Technical University of Dresden. 
Several transcriptomes and a few million flies later, Adam joined MCSB to look for evolutionarily-conserved ways that bacteria communicate with their hosts, and the consequences for long-term host health. Biomedically, this could help us to design microbiota to improve long-term health. Biologically, this research could reveal general rules of what bacteria can do for their hosts, which animals seem unable to manage alone.

Papers mentioned in the talk: 

Dobson AJ, Boulton-McDonald R, Houchou L, Ren Z, Hoti M, Rodriguez-Lopez M, Gkantiragas A, Gregoriou A, Baehler J, Ezcurra M, Alic N. [2019] Longevity is determined by ETS transcription factors in multiple tissues and diverse species. PLoS Genetics 15 (7): e1008212

Dobson AJ†, He X, Blanc E, Bolukbasi E, Feseha Y, Yang M†, Piper MDW†. [2018] Tissue-specific transcriptome profiling of Drosophila reveals roles for GATA transcription factors in longevity by dietary restriction. Nature Partner Journals: Aging & Mechanisms of Disease 4: 5.  doi:10.1038/s41514-018-0024-4 †Corresponding author

 Dobson AJ, Ezcurra M, Flanagan CE, Summerfield AC, Piper MDW, Gems D, Alic N. [2017] Nutritional programming of lifespan by FOXO inhibition on sugar-rich diets. Cell Reports 18 (2): 299-306.

Slack C, Alic N, Foley A, Cabecinha M, Hoddinott MP, Partridge L. [2015] The Ras-Erk-ETS-Signaling Pathway Is a Drug Target for Longevity. Cell. Jul 2;162(1):72-83

Alic N, Giannakou ME, Papatheodorou I, Hoddinott MP, Andrews TD, Bolukbasi E, Partridge L. [2014] Interplay of dFOXO and two ETS-family transcription factors determines lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster. PLoS Genet. 18;10(9):e1004619.

Niccoli T, Partridge L. [2012] Ageing as a risk factor for disease. Curr Biol. 11;22(17):R741-52

Barnett K, Mercer SW, Norbury M, Watt G, Wyke S, Guthrie B. [2012] Epidemiology of multimorbidity and implications for health care, research, and medical education: a cross-sectional study. Lancet. Jul 7;380(9836):37-43

McCay, C. M., Crowell, M. & Maynard, L. [1935] The effect of retarded growth upon the length of life span and upon the ultimate body size. J. Nutr. 10, 63–79.

Fontana L, Partridge L. [2015] Promoting health and longevity through diet: from model organisms to humans.  Cell.  26;161(1):106-118.