Kathleen E. Fischer
Comparative biologist of ageing who studies why ageing rates differ between sexes, strains and species, and who led a long-term study of how lifelong rapamycin affects health measures in mice
Research Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham · Research Assistant Professor, Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio (2010–2014) · earlier conservation and natural-resource work (Wildlife Conservation Society; Yurok Tribe) · postdoc, Duke University (1998–1999) · PhD in Biology and Anthropology, Harvard University (1996)
Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) ↗
Portrait: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Biology
Kathleen Fischer was first author of the Atlas study that fed C57BL/6J mice of both sexes rapamycin from four months of age until death and tested the same animals repeatedly for health measures from 16 months (FIS2015). Some measures improved, such as grip strength in females and sleep fragmentation in males, others did not change or got worse, and in body mass, fat and metabolic rate rapamycin moved males and females in opposite directions.
Fischer earned her PhD in biology and anthropology at Harvard and worked for several years in conservation and natural-resource management before returning to ageing research at the Barshop Institute in San Antonio. She moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2014, where she studies differences in ageing between sexes, strains and species with the aim of improving health in late life rather than lifespan alone.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | A | Health Effects of Long-Term Rapamycin Treatment: The Impact on Mouse Health of Enteric Rapamycin Treatment from Four Months of Age throughout Life FIS2015 First author: showed that lifelong dietary rapamycin in mice had mixed and strongly sex-specific effects on healthspan measures. |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Kathleen E. Fischer.
- 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
- Steven N. Austad Comparative biologist of ageing who studies why some species and one sex live longer than others, and who directs the UAB Nathan Shock Center; senior author of a study of how lifelong rapamycin affects health in mice
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