Aurel Popa-Wagner
Neuroscientist of brain aging and stroke recovery working between Craiova and Essen, senior author of a 2026 review on the limits of extending lifespan through the mTOR pathway
Department of Neurology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova · Chair of Vascular Neurology, Dementia and Ageing, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen
In worms and flies, turning down TOR signalling can stretch lifespan dramatically. In mice, rapamycin also works, but the gain is far smaller. The 2026 review led by Denisa Pirscoveanu, with Aurel Popa-Wagner as senior author, offers an explanation: in simple organisms aging runs through a few dominant pathways, whereas in mammals it emerges from many organs talking to each other, with redundant genes, hormonal feedback, gut microbes and drug-handling differences that soften the effect of any single intervention.
For readers of this Atlas the useful message is about expectations. mTOR remains a central aging pathway in mammals, but the review argues that its leverage is diluted by system-level buffering. The paper is a synthesis of published data across species, not a new experiment.
PubMed lists Popa-Wagner at both the Department of Neurology of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova and the Chair of Vascular Neurology, Dementia and Ageing at University Hospital Essen. Recent papers with this group study stroke in the aging rat brain, for example how immune genes active during early brain development contribute to post-stroke damage in old male rats.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R | Biological limits of lifespan extension: evidence for a shift from pathway leverage to system-level buffering across species PIR2026 Senior author: led the cross-species review proposing that mTOR-pathway lifespan gains shrink in mammals because of multi-tissue buffering and redundancy. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Aurel Popa-Wagner.
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- Denisa Pirscoveanu Neurology researcher in Craiova who works with Aurel Popa-Wagner on aging and stroke, and first author of a 2026 review on why mTOR-type lifespan gains shrink from worms to mammals
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