Post-doctoral Fellow
Research
During my Ph.D. training, I studied autophagy using C. elegans as a model system in Dr. Hong Zhang's lab at National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China. I identified a number of previous uncharacterized genes involved in autophagy and defined the function of these gene products at discrete steps of a signaling pathway. I received my Ph.D. degree in 2010.
Now I am very interested in the molecular mechanisms of longevity. One of the newly identified pathway regulate longevity is a cell non-autonomous signal induced by electron transfer chain perturbation. The results indicate that a signal is sent from the disturbed mitochondria to distal cells to modulate their mitochondrial function resulting in lifespan extension. We have termed this signal a "mitokine." I will use the power of C. elegans genetics to identify genes functioning in production, transduction, and regulation of the mitokine signal.
Publications
Tian Y, Garcia G, Bian Q, Steffen KK, Joe L, Wolff S, Meyer BJ, Dillin A. Mitochondrial Stress Induces Chromatin Reorganization to Promote Longevity and UPRmt. Cell. 2016 May 165, 1–12. PMID: 27133166