Jonathan J. Halloran
First author of a 2012 mouse study showing that lifelong rapamycin does not cost the brain anything and even protects learning and memory with age; long-time member of Veronica Galvan's aging and Alzheimer's research group in San Antonio
Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (Galvan lab, papers 2012–2026)
Rapamycin lengthens the lives of mice, and an obvious worry is whether a drug that blocks mTOR, the cell's growth-control protein, harms the brain. In HAL2012, in the journal Neuroscience, Jonathan Halloran was first author of a study in C57BL/6 mice that asked this directly. The mice ate chow containing rapamycin at the dose that extends lifespan (about 2.24 mg per kilogram of body weight per day), for periods from 8 to 40 weeks. Rapamycin improved learning and memory in young mice, prevented the age-related decline in thinking skills in old mice, and reduced anxiety-like and depression-like behaviour. The authors linked these effects to higher levels of the brain messengers called monoamines. The study is in mice, with behaviour tests as the measurement.
Halloran worked in Veronica Galvan's group at the Barshop Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. PubMed lists him on the group's papers on rapamycin and the brain: a 2012 study in Alzheimer's-model mice showing that rapamycin raises the cell's protective chaperone proteins, two 2013 studies on brain metabolism in Surf1-deficient mice and on brain blood vessels in Alzheimer's-model mice, a 2019 study of blood flow and memory in aging rats, and a 2026 paper on mTOR in neurons. The 2026 paper still lists him at the Barshop Institute. No personal institutional page was found, so his exact title is not confirmed.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | A | Chronic inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin by rapamycin modulates cognitive and non-cognitive components of behavior throughout lifespan in mice. HAL2012 First author: showed that chronic rapamycin at the lifespan-extending dose improved learning and memory in young mice, prevented age-related cognitive decline and reduced anxiety-like behaviour. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 5
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Jonathan J. Halloran.
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- Arlan Richardson Studies how rapamycin slows ageing in mice, including the broad changes it causes in the liver, and co-authored early studies showing that rapamycin protects memory in Alzheimer's-model mice
- Natalia Podlutskaya Contributed, at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio, to mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and improves cognition in normal ageing
- Randy Strong Leads the San Antonio site of the NIA Interventions Testing Program, which tests each compound in parallel at three sites under one shared protocol. He first-authored the program's reports on resveratrol and other supplements (2012) and on rapamycin combined with acarbose (2022)
- Stacy A. Hussong Studies how mTOR damages the brain's blood vessels, and how blocking it restores blood flow, the blood-brain barrier and memory in aging and Alzheimer's models
- Veronica Galvan Led mouse studies showing that rapamycin prevents Alzheimer's-like memory loss and amyloid build-up, and improves learning in normally ageing mice
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