Jong-Ok Pyo
Autophagy researcher in Yong-Keun Jung's group in Korea, and first author of the 2013 study in which mice with an extra dose of the autophagy gene Atg5 lived longer
Global Research Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences and Bio-MAX Institute, Seoul National University (papers 2008–2013, at the time of the study) · Department of Life Science, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (papers to 2005)
Jong-Ok Pyo was first author of a 2013 Nature Communications paper (PYO2013) that tested a simple idea. Autophagy is the cell's self-cleaning system: it wraps worn-out parts in a membrane bag and sends them to be broken down. Autophagy fades with age, and mTOR, the cell's growth switch, holds it back when nutrients are plentiful. The team made mice that carry extra copies of Atg5, one of the core genes needed to build the autophagy bags. These mice had more autophagy, lived about 17 percent longer at the median, stayed leaner and responded better to insulin, and their cells coped better with oxidative damage.
It showed that turning autophagy up, without blocking mTOR, can lengthen life in a mammal. It is a mouse study, and it does not show that the same would happen in people.
Pyo spent the earlier part of this path in the group of Yong-Keun Jung, first at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology and then at Seoul National University. A 2005 first-author paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, written with the autophagy researchers Noboru Mizushima and Yoshinori Ohsumi among the co-authors, showed that Atg5 also takes part in a form of cell death by binding the death-signalling protein FADD. A 2008 first-author paper showed that extra ARC protein protects mouse heart muscle cells from damage when oxygen is cut off, and a 2012 review in Experimental & Molecular Medicine summarised the molecules that drive autophagy. No PubMed record after 2013 was found, and a current position could not be confirmed.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | A | Overexpression of Atg5 in mice activates autophagy and extends lifespan PYO2013 First author: showed that mice carrying extra Atg5 have more autophagy, live about 17 percent longer and are leaner and more insulin sensitive. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Jong-Ok Pyo.
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- Yong-Keun Jung Studies programmed cell death and autophagy and their roles in ageing and disease, including mice with extra copies of the autophagy gene Atg5 that live longer.
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