Andrew Pickering
Associate Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology
The Pickering lab is interested in biological questions about the aging process with the goal of development of treatments to allow people to stay healthy and active for longer. Our lab utilizes a number of model systems to answer these questions including fruit flies, mice and cell lines from long and short-lived animal species. Our particular focus is the role of proteostasis in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. We have demonstrated a modulatory role for the proteasome system in brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease. We also have shown tradeoff between protein synthesis and aging.
Some of the projects we are working on right now include
The proteasome in aging and Alzheimer’s disease: We are interested in the role of the proteasome system in aging and age-related diseases. We have found that when we enhance proteasome function in the brain we can delay age as well as Alzheimer’s disease memory loss. We have also developed a set of proteasome activators which produce similar benefits.
Early life protein translation in aging and lifespan: We are interested in modulation of protein translation in lifespan. We have found protein translation to be elevated in early-life with a decline in protein translation rates across lifespan. We discovered that this represented an active repression of protein translation rates by the organism to prevent or reduce later life proteostasis collapse.
Our current work includes study of these processes as well as other novel regulators of the aging process.
Education & Training
PhD, University of Southern California, 2012