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Assistant Professor earned a new grant from the National Institute on Aging to investigate whether the methionine cycle — a process crucial to many cellular functions — plays a role in controlling multiple hallmarks of aging. Parkhitko, who also works in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at 51¾«Æ·ÊÓƵ Medicine, will serve as co-principal investigator on the grant with Marc Tatar of Brown University.

Tightly regulated activity of the methionine metabolism pathway is essential for healthy cellular function, and an imbalance in this pathway has been observed in aging and in numerous diseases, including cancer, obesity and neurodegeneration.

While the progression of hallmarks of aging is delayed by dietary interventions, there is no consensus on the mechanism by which nutrient sensing coordinates these hallmarks or how decelerated hallmarks coordinate to regulate lifespan.

The Parkhitko Lab will address questions of how nutrient sensing is related to the hallmarks of aging and how slowing down these hallmarks regulates lifespan with new type of Drosophila fruit fly mutants. During the next several years, the team will explore whether the methionine cycle provides a central mechanism to control multiple hallmarks of aging in response to nutrient sensing and will establish how nutrient regulation of the methionine cycle affects these hallmarks.

The work has the potential to increase understanding of the role of methionine in aging, which could help extend lifespans and delay aging.