My research focuses on understanding the transcriptional and metabolic pathways underlying drug-induced changes in feeding behavior. I am working to identify drugs that lower food intake and extend lifespan indicative of activating healthy fasting pathways. Using our bacterial clearance assay, we identified two distinct pathways that modulate serotonin-induced food intake and antipsychotic-induced food intake.
I am now studying how these pathways relate to feeding in long-lived mutants. This protocol allows researchers to study the relationship between feeding and longevity. The feeding rate is usually characterized by pharyngeal pumping.
However, the pumping rate in C.elegans is not necessarily proportional to the amount of food being eaten. When added to those previous assays, this protocol gives a quantifiable amount of food intake per worm population. Our assay allows us to quantitatively modulate feeding using small molecules, and to determine how the induced change alter lifespan simultaneously.
