From Cell Reprogramming to Tissue Rejuvenation: Countering Aging by Targeting a Gerozyme

Here I highlight personal and professional experiences that shaped my career and defined my scientific journey, with my longtime colleague, Ermelinda Porpiglia. I hope that sharing my life's adventures will inspire others to enjoy both a fulfilling scientific career and the fruits of parenthood. I have always enjoyed addressing big questions and challenging dogma. In my early career I probed cell plasticity, challenging the dogma that a cell's specialized state is fixed and irreversible. I then sought to understand stem cells, crucial to tissue repair. Most recently, my lab discovered a gerozyme, 15-prostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), a master regulator of muscle aging, and showed that muscle tissue is rejuvenated and strengthened when the gerozyme is inhibited with a small-molecule drug. It would be a dream come true if this discovery in my lab becomes a treatment for the debilitating muscle wasting arising from disuse, disease, or aging.