Defective RNA processing and ELOA-mediated transcriptional elongation in reversible cellular senescence suggest aging by transcription Parast et al. reveal how abnormal transcription elongation factor expression could drive cellular senescence and aging via breakdowns in the coordination of transcription and RNA processing. They demo...

Journal club time! 📑
Defective RNA processing and ELOA-mediated transcriptional elongation reveals that Elongin A promotes transcriptional continuation toward gene ends and impacts growth arrest by supporting productive gene expression, linking RNA processing defects with transcriptional regulation.

ERIBA seminar: Recently, our postdoc @martijnrutten.bsky.social presented his work on longitudinal intermittent hypoxia initiated at mid-life and its failure to modify functional aging trajectories in mice, offering new insights into the timing and limitations of interventions in aging research.

ERIBA seminar - Exciting research alert! Recently, Abdullah Altulea, PhD student from our lab, presented a project he has been working on during his PhD, in which using scRNA-seq data, he created a unique signature for senescent cells in the context of aging and injury.

SenSeqNet: A Deep Learning Framework for Cellular Senescence Detection From Protein Sequences We present SenSeqNet, a deep learning framework that predicts cellular senescence directly from protein sequences. SenSeqNet integrates embeddings from the Evolutionary Scale Modeling(ESM-2) with a h...

Journal Club Time📰: Jiang et al published a new deep learning framework, SenSeqNet, that predicts cellular senescence directly from protein sequences to identify senescence–associated proteins, providing a scalable and annotation-independent approach for senescence and aging-related research.

First ERIBA Seminar – Francesca Pagliarin, PhD student in our lab, recently presented her first ERIBA seminar! In her talk, Francesca explored sex-specific responses to anti-aging therapies, highlighting how biological sex can influence the effectiveness and outcomes of interventions targeting aging

Endothelial senescent-cell-specific clearance alleviates metabolic dysfunction in obese mice In obese adipose tissue, p16⁺ endothelial cells and p21⁺ preadipocytes and immune cells exhibit high inflammatory activity, highlighting senescent cell heterogeneity. Clearing p16⁺ endothelial cells a...

First Journal Club of 2026📰: Suda et al (@cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social) showed that selective clearance of senescent endothelial cells alleviates inflammation and metabolic dysfunction in obese mice, thereby identifying endothelial senescence as a therapeutic target for metabolic dysfunction.

A few days ago, we had our annual ERIBA Christmas potluck dinner: A time for great food from around the world (we have some amazing cooks at ERIBA!), a cosy atmosphere and nice conversations. Special thanks to the social committee for doing a wonderful job organizing this event.

p53 drives lung cancer regression through a TSC2/TFEB-dependent senescence program - PubMed Pharmacological restoration of p53 tumor suppressor function is a conceptually appealing therapeutic strategy for the many deadly cancers with compromised p53 activity, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, the p53 pathway has remained undruggable, partly because of insufficient understandi …

Journal Club Time📰: Wang et al. (@aacrjournals.bsky.social) show that p53 drives regression of lung adenocarcinoma by transactivating TSC2, which inhibits mTORC1 and promotes TFEB nuclear accumulation — triggering lysosomal/autophagy-linked senescence that recruits macrophages to clear tumor cells.

On Dec 5th, the 2nd MoHAD research day was held which showcased highlights from each MoHAD theme. Pilar Picallos Rabina from our lab was selected to present her pitch. Winners of the MoHAD collaborative fellowship were announced and Trupthi Joshi from our lab won for the Development & Ageing theme.

Last week we said goodbye to Chiara Sasia, our Italian visiting PhD student after three great months in the lab.
It was a pleasure having her with us! We celebrated with a farewell drink and shared a final moment together. 🫂
We wish her all the best for her future research journey. 🔬
#senescence

A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging Efficient DNA repair might make possible the longevity of naked mole-rats. However, whether they have distinctive mechanisms to optimize functions of DNA repair suppressors is unclear. We find that na...

Journal Club Time📰: A new publication from @science.org, found that a unique cGAS variant in naked mole-rats boosts DNA repair through just four amino-acid changes, offering insights into how enhanced genome maintenance contributes to their exceptional longevity.

Cell‐Surface LAMP1 is a Senescence Marker in Aging and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis We have validated the selective upregulation of LAMP1 in SEN in culture, and the percentage of Lamp1+ cells increases in various tissues with age, as well as in fibrotic lungs following BLM instillat...

Journal Club Time📰: A new publication from Aging Cell identified LAMP1 as a surface biomarker of senescent cells. LAMP1⁺ cells increased with age and in mouse models of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Use of a dual‐antibody-drug conjugate system selectively eliminated LAMP1⁺ senescent cells in vitro.

Yesterday we celebrated our new paper in Advanced Science! 🎉
👉 doi.org/10.1002/advs...
Yao Lin, Boshi Wang & Mengling Huang showed that female mice accumulate more p16⁺ cells but recover better after clearance. Removing them rejuvenates liver & reduces inflammation. Congrats team! 👏

🎓 Wonderful to celebrate the PhD defense of Dr. Darren Baker’s student, Dr. Graves, from the Mayo Clinic, who obtained her PhD cum laude from the University of Groningen! The Demaria Lab was glad to be there to share this achievement. ❤️
#PhDDefense #AgingResearch #UMCG #ERIBA

Great to host Dr. Darren Baker (Mayo Clinic) at ERIBA! He shared exciting insights on cellular senescence in neurodegeneration & cancer, followed by great discussions and a fun lab happy hour. Inspiring science and collaboration!
#AgingResearch #ERIBA #UMCG

🔥 Great science from our lab at today’s ERIBA Friday seminar!
Our postdoc Pilar shared her work on a nutraceutical strategy against senescence using oleic acid — exploring how this molecule may promote healthier ageing. 🫒 #ERIBA #Science

Since September we’ve been hosting Emilio Sosa-Diaz, a master student from the National Autonomous University of Mexico 🇲🇽 . He’ll be with us to study the role of transposable elements in single cell data from senescent cells and explore macrophage aging in the liver. We’re excited to welcome him 🔬

🎉 ICSA Rome 2025
Our team had an incredible time at the 10th ICSA conference!
Marco gave an inspiring talk on the role of Tetraspanin 13 in senescence and aging, Myrthe shared her work via a poster, and Alessio, Pilar, and Mengling presented short talks on their senescence related projects.

Exciting moments from the 2nd SenAP Symposium at Hasselt University on October 7th!
Our senior scientist, Dr. Boshi Wang, delivered a keynote talk exploring the role of CDK4/6 inhibitors in senescence induction, SASP regulation, and combinatorial cancer therapy.

🎉 Lab Retreat 2025
We had an amazing time at our retreat, full of fun, teamwork, and great memories!
This year was extra special as we also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of our lab!
Grateful for this journey and for everyone who makes it so special, a big thank you to @marcdema.bsky.social.

Exciting days at the G-JAM meeting hosted by the Fritz-Lipmann-Institut in Jena 🇩🇪! Our PhDs and Postdocs presented their latest work on cellular senescence and connected with an inspiring community of aging researchers. Many thanks to the organizers for such a stimulating event! 💥🧬 #aging #research

🔥Exciting science at ERIBA seminar! 🔥
Our Postdoc @jamilnehme.bsky.social presented his research on cell fate decisions in response to damage and the broader implications for health and disease. Inspiring insights into life’s resilience!
#aging #cellularsenescence #science

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-sasia-202aab23b?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Since September we’ve been hosting Chiara Sasia, a PhD student from the University of Florence 🇮🇹. She’ll be with us for a few months to study the role of TREM2 in senescent microglia and its interaction with astrocytes. We’re excited to welcome her and look forward to an enriching exchange! 🧫🧪

Farewell to @magnusberglind.bsky.social 👋
After two months in our lab, it was great having you around. We really enjoyed you being part of the team, both for your work and the fun moments.
Good luck with what’s next, we’re sure you’ll do great 🚀 #labteam #cellularsenescence #aging

Starting in mid-May, Ian Davis has joined us from SUNY-ESF (Syracuse, NY). Ian is a B.Sc. student with us through mid-August and has been investigating an already-approved drug class for its potential senolytic effects in mice.

Mitochondrial DNA released by senescent tumor cells enhances PMN-MDSC-driven immunosuppression through the cGAS-STING pathway Mitochondrial dysfunction is a feature of cellular senescence. Lai et al. find that senescent tumor cells release mitochondrial (mt)DNA into the extracellular space, where it is taken up by PMN-MDSCs....

Journal Club Time📰: A new publication from @cp-immunity.bsky.social showed that therapy-induced tumor and non-tumor cells actively released mtDNA into the extracellular environment, which resulted in enhanced immunosuppressive activity of polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells.

Since June, we’ve been hosting @magnusberglind.bsky.social, PhD student from Copenhagen University Hospital (Hvidovre)🇩🇰.He’s with us for two months to study cells isolated from a new tissue-specific p16 reporter mouse model.We’re glad to have him and look forward to a great scientific exchange!

Farewell 🍻🫶
Last week we said goodbye to Allancer, Arianna and Chiara with a lovely lab happy hour.
Thank you for your dedication, curiosity, and bright spirit.
Wishing you all the best in your next adventures.
You'll be missed and always welcome back! 💛
#LabHappyHour #Science

Age-associated reduction in ER-Mitochondrial contacts impairs mitochondrial lipid metabolism and autophagosome formation in the heart - Cell Death & Differentiation Cell Death & Differentiation - Age-associated reduction in ER-Mitochondrial contacts impairs mitochondrial lipid metabolism and autophagosome formation in the heart

Journal Club Time📰: A new study published in @nature.com showed that disrupted mitochondrial lipid metabolism drives dysfunctional giant mitochondria in aged heart cells, and targeting LACTB may help counteract cardiac aging.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

On 10th April 2025, members from the Demaria lab, and others, organized the first PhD Day for PhD candidates in the theme of development and ageing. This event gave PhD candidates the opportunity to present their research, engage with their peers and become part of a vibrant academic community.