April Talk
Death and the Octopus
Speaker
Z Yan Wang, PhD
University of Washington
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Biology and Weill Neurohub Term Assistant Professor
University of Washington
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Biology and Weill Neurohub Term Assistant Professor
When
Wednesday April 1st 1pm to 2pm EDT
Where
Virtual ONLY — join the zoom!
About the Talk
In octopuses, longevity is controlled by a part of the nervous system, the optic glands, which trigger death after reproduction. Though this phenomenon has been referenced by cephalopod biologists since at least the beginning of the 20th century, how and why this happens has only recently begun to come into focus. In this talk, I highlight recent advances in our understanding of death and dying in the octopus and preview some of our new work on the octopus vestibular system.
About the Lab
Neurobiology of Senescence and Death
Death unites all living organisms. How do nervous systems organize, encode, and mediate end-of-life transitions and death? Our lab investigates the nervous systems of octopuses and bees, two ideal systems for studying this question from evolutionary and developmental perspectives. We use multiple high-dimensional omics, behavioral, and molecular approaches to uncover fundamental rules of aging, senescence, and death.
Death unites all living organisms. How do nervous systems organize, encode, and mediate end-of-life transitions and death? Our lab investigates the nervous systems of octopuses and bees, two ideal systems for studying this question from evolutionary and developmental perspectives. We use multiple high-dimensional omics, behavioral, and molecular approaches to uncover fundamental rules of aging, senescence, and death.
May Talk
Escaping Death: Molecular Mechanisms of Death-Factor Induced Necrotaxis and Longevity
Speaker
Erik Toraason
Princeton
Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) Fellow, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology
Princeton
Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) Fellow, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology
When
Thursday May 28th 3:30pm to 4:30pm EDT
Where
In-person (100 College, room TBD) & virtual
About the Talk
The perception of frightening, painful, and aversive stimuli in the environment is critical for organisms to avoid harm. Many species across phyla use visual, auditory, and/or chemical signals to identify other dead members of their species as a potent sign of danger. The perception of death also can impact an organism's health; in humans, experiencing death and grief increases the risk for myriad aging-related diseases. Thus, elucidating the molecular basis by which neurons identify and integrate cues associated with death is critical to understand not only the basis of fundamental survival behaviors, but to further identify how neuronal signals propagate to the body and influence physiology.
C. elegans is a powerful model system with which to dissect mechanisms of neuronal perception, sensory integration, and aging. In my postdoctoral work, I have identified a novel small-molecule signal, which we named 'Todstoff' (death-substance), present in the lysed remains of other worms that induces robust avoidance behaviors in other living C. elegans. My experiments revealed that Todstoff is sensed by nociceptive (pain-sensing) neurons, which transduce glutamatergic synaptic signals to downstream interneurons that induce avoidance behaviors. In addition to this aversive response, I discovered that prolonged exposure to the remains of other dead worms extends C. elegans lifespan via distinct mechanisms depending on the age of the living recipient. In total, my postdoctoral work is uncovering the molecular pathways by which the universal experience of death informs behavior and physiology.