Mirre Simons

Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale - Nature Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein.  &nbs...

What do the naked mole rat and bowhead whale (lives to ~200 years) have in common to explain their remarkable longevity?
Enhanced DNA repair
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
erictopol.substack.com/p/a-long-awa...

CIRBP expression in the fly extends lifespan and improves resistance to lethal radiation. For myself it sparked a renewed interest in DNA repair and somatic mutations. We are trying a few things in this space at the moment in the lab.

Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale - Nature Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein.  &nbs...

Latest paper. Super interesting comparative biology on ageing in the bowhead whale.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to Denis Firsanov, Max Zacher, Jan Vijg, Andrei Seluanov, Vera Gorbunova, et al, for this work. Thanks for including us in this work and also Dan Hayman (excellent postdoc).

YouTube video by The University of Sheffield Student guide to studying Biosciences | University of Sheffield

Come and study Biology at the University of Sheffield (UK)! We cover every aspect of biology and offer specialised degrees with plenty of module choice and research. Feel free to contact me should you want any information. A brilliant video made by our students:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=syup...

BSRA Online Public Seminar Series - BSRA In our new Understanding Ageing: Meet the Scientists series, we’ve invited experts in their field to talk about their research and what it means for each of us as we get older. You don’t need any scie...

Please help spread the word about our inaugural public lecture on Wednesday. Sign up and if you are in the ageing field it’s a great opp for your family to finally understand what you do! 😀
Thanks for your support 🙏

bsra.org.uk/events/bsra-...

Knockdown of the fly spliceosome component Rbp1(orthologue of SRSF1) extends lifespan Biological regulation is a highly intricate process and involves many layers of complexity even at the RNA level. Alternative splicing is crucial in the regulation of which components of a protein-cod...

Latest exciting work from me and @mirresimons.bsky.social (and the first bit of data from my @vivensa.bsky.social ECR Fellowship) now out as a preprint, looking at effects of knocking down individual spliceosome components on lifespan in vivo: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

and aging remain elusive, why longer-lived organisms show more signs of aging during their natural lifespans, and why longer-lived organisms can be less responsive to treatments of aging that work well in short-lived organisms. We provide predictions of our theory that are empirically testable.

Our model explains many puzzling aspects of aging. These include why aging appears (but is not) programmed, why aging is gradual yet heterogeneous, why cellular and hormonal signaling are closely related to aging, the compensation law of mortality, why trade-offs between reproduction...

Optimisation models of physiology often use immunity as an example, with the cost of underactivating immunity being steepest, as this would lead to death by infection. Our model predicts that the system will on average drift to overactivation of immunity during aging.

The regulation of such physiology will be asymmetrical as the costs of loss of regulation are not equal for under- and over-activation. When asymmetrical regulation breaks during aging it causes physiological function to drift towards the physiological range where costs of dysregulation are lowest.

A synopsis:
Life has evolved to secure reproduction and avoid system failure in early life and it is the physiological regulation that evolves in response to those early life selection pressures that leads to the emergence of aging.

The biology of aging is something fundamental to all life, but we have a limited understanding of its physiology and its evolution. I presented this idea at #ARDD2025 and at the #BRSA2025 and many of you asked if there was a preprint, now there is. I welcome any feedback!

The evolution of asymmetrical regulation of physiology is central to aging The evolutionary biology of aging is fundamental to understanding the mechanisms of aging and how to develop anti-aging treatments. Thus far most evolutionary theory concerns the genetics of aging wit...

We present a novel idea of how aging evolves. This idea was developed together with Marc Tatar, and it was such a joy to think about. I think this is one of the best ideas I worked on for a while, ..or ever.. ;):
arxiv.org/abs/2509.15911

Lifelong restriction of dietary valine has sex-specific benefits for health and lifespan in mice Dietary protein is a key regulator of metabolic health in humans and rodents. Many of the benefits of protein restriction are mediated by reduced consumption of dietary branched-chain amino acids (BCA...

Lifelong restriction of dietary valine has sex-specific benefits for health and lifespan in mice
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

mTORC1 senses glutamine and other amino acids through GCN2 | The EMBO Journal imageimageDuring starvation, individual amino acid levels are thought to be relayed via distinct metabolic sensors, but how mTORC1 senses glutamine remains unclear. This study finds that GCN2 kinase acts as a unifying module in suppression of ...

#mTOR research field never ceases to amaze, what a tour de force! 👇🏼

mTORC1 senses glutamine and other amino acids through GCN2 | The EMBO Journal www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

@miriamgotz.bsky.social

School of Biosciences Our courses cover the full breadth of biology, from molecular and cell biology, genetics, development, human physiology and pharmacology through to evolution, ecology, biodiversity conservation and su...

The majority of this work was done by my student Miriam, she has done an amazing job. Similarly interested in studying in one of the best biology departments in the UK?: sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences

Our study in the fly shows that suppression rather than activation extends lifespan in the fly. Opening up a lot of interesting questions, including how we can target ATF4 or its downstream targets to gain longevity benefits.

Mild stress is associated with longer lifespans. Activation of the integrated stress response, governed by the transcription factor ATF4 is therefore thought to lead to longer lifespans, but has received limited study.

New preprint. ATF4 activation is thought to lead to longer lifespans. However, our study shows that suppression rather than activation extends lifespan in the fly. New Qs: how we can target ATF4 or its downstream targets to gain targeted longevity benefits.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.

A huge project has analysed more than 1,000 claims about the immunity of Drosophila fruit flies in scientific papers published over some 50 years

go.nature.com/4lxhwJB

Old mitochondria regulate niche renewal via α-ketoglutarate metabolism in stem cells - Nature Metabolism Andersson et al. show that intestinal stem cells enriched for old mitochondria are metabolically distinct and have enhanced ability to regenerate the epithelial niche.

Proudly presenting Simon’s @simonsterson.bsky.social‬ paper on asymmetric apportioning of old mitochondria biasing intestinal stem cells for the Paneth cell linage through aKG-dependent metabolism
@naturemetabolism.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... @helsinki.fi @metastem.bsky.social 🧵1/8

It’s because we are top100 now, hahahaha

Peto’s paradox’s relevance is off the scale | Aging Aging | doi:10.18632/aging.206258. Mirre J.P. Simons

www.aging-us.com/article/206258

If using Bloomigton #Drosophila Stock Center stocks, pls. acknowledge them & their NIH funding (P40 OD018537). Papers listing this no. are being harvested as evidence. We massively depend on the @bdsc.bsky.social & they need our support in these dire times! @flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social

Glutamine-glutamate intercellular relay model for brain sparing

Our latest preprint…Adrien Franchet, Yuhong Jin et al @crick.ac.uk show that circulating glutamine drives brain sparing during nutrient restriction. Great collab with labs of Yaël Grosjean and Ian Gilmore.
#metabolism #Drosophila #neuralstemcells

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Is the risk of brain injury from contact sports being overstated by the media? How to understand the risks of head injuries in sport – beyond the alarming headlines.

"More and more people are worried about the long-term effects of contact sports on the brain. In football (soccer), studies have found that repeatedly heading the ball can lead to memory problems and an increased risk of serious brain diseases."

theconversation.com/...
1/4

Version of record in eLife on the trade-off between reproduction and survival (ageing) in birds. Well done Lucy!

Conclusions:
Limited evidence for trade-offs.
Constraints appear in between-species variance only.
Trade-offs may not be inherent to ageing.

elifesciences.org/articles/87018

The Birdman of Skomer With English captions.

Lovely film about Tim Birkhead's long-term study of Guillemots on Skomer. More than half a century of study of this population: this kind of continuity critical for understanding vitality of these important populations.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

vimeo.com/1063680641/2...

Also congrats to Sarah (1st author) for handing in her PhD thesis yesterday.