The living dead: metabolic arrest and the control of biological time The Storey lab studies the molecular mechanisms and regulatory principles that provide the common basis for animal metabolic arrest. Although not part of the human experience, torpor or dormancy is widespread across the animal kingdom and represents a key survival strategy in the face of daunting environmental challenges. Indeed, strong metabolic rate depression underlies multiple phenomena including estivation, diapause, freezing and anoxia tolerance, anhydrobiosis, and hibernation. Mammalian hibernation has perhaps the greatest relevance to humans as molecular adaptations imparting survival of hibernator organs at low temperatures have numerous medical applications including improvement of the hypothermic preservation of excised organs for transplant, ischemia resistance, and prevention of muscle atrophy. Current research in the Storey lab also focuses on signal transduction and gene expression in multiple systems, including the action of microRNAs as translational regulators, and novel epigenetic mechanisms (histone and DNA modifications). Supported by NSERC. For more information visit http://kenstoreylab.com/ Biography: Prof. Kenneth B. Storey, Ph.D., F.R.S.C holds the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Physiology. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Calgary and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. Ken is an international authority in the field of biochemical adaptation. His lab integrates the tools of enzymology, metabolic biochemistry, protein chemistry, and molecular biology to identify evolved adaptations underpinning amazing animal phenomena including hibernation, estivation, and freeze and anoxia tolerance. Ken is a prolific author and speaker – he has authored over 750 publications and has given hundreds of talks around the world. Among his many tributes Ken was awarded the 2010 Flavelle Medal in Biological Sciences from the Royal Society of Canada, the 2011 Fry Medal from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, and the 2014 CryoBiology Society Medal. ***Note Special Location: BioSci Rm 1103***
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