Linda Partridge
Showed that rapamycin extends fruit-fly lifespan through TORC1, via autophagy and reduced protein synthesis, and that it adds benefit even on top of dietary restriction
Emerita Professor, UCL and Emeritus Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing · founding director, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne (2008–2023) · Weldon Professor of Biometry, University College London (from 1994; director, UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing, 2007–2019) · Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh · postdoc, University of York · DPhil, University of Oxford
Emerita profile, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing (Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) ↗ ORCID0000-0001-9615-0094 ↗
Portrait: The Royal Society
Partridge's 2010 paper with Ivana Bjedov showed that simply adding rapamycin to fruit fly food extended their lifespan, and traced the mechanism: rapamycin's mTOR inhibition boosted autophagy (the cell's internal recycling system) and reduced general protein synthesis — the same two downstream effects long suspected to explain why eating less extends lifespan. Critically, rapamycin still worked even in flies already eating a lifespan-optimized diet, showing that drugging TOR directly can extend life beyond what diet alone achieves.
That result connected to the broader synthesis she co-authored with Luigi Fontana and Valter Longo in Science that same year, which laid out the evidence that dietary restriction and reduced signaling through nutrient-sensing pathways — insulin/IGF-1 and TOR — may slow ageing by conserved mechanisms; lifespan extension is shown from yeast through worms and flies to rhesus monkeys, while the human evidence is limited to protective biomarkers and genetic associations.
Partridge built her career using Drosophila as a genetically tractable model for the evolutionary biology and mechanisms of aging, moving from Edinburgh to UCL's Weldon Chair of Biometry in 1994 and later founding the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne in 2008, which she directed until her retirement in 2023. She was elected FRS in 1996, made DBE in 2009, and delivered the Royal Society's Croonian Lecture the same year; she had received the Linnean Society's Darwin–Wallace Medal in 2008.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | A | Ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 signaling regulates mammalian life span SEL2009 Deleting S6K1 (a direct mTORC1 effector) extended lifespan in FEMALE mice (+19% median); the effect was not significant in males. It also protected against age-related bone, immune and motor decline. One of the clearest cases of the sex dimorphism catalogued in gap H6 - and a reminder that a single downstream branch, not mTORC1 as a whole, can carry much of the ageing signal. |
| 2010 | R | Extending healthy life span--from yeast to humans FON2010 A landmark synthesis showing that dietary restriction and dampened nutrient-sensing signaling — mTOR and growth hormone/IGF-1 — may slow ageing by conserved mechanisms; lifespan extension is shown from yeast to rhesus monkeys, while human evidence is limited to protective biomarkers and genetic associations. |
| 2010 | A | Mechanisms of life span extension by rapamycin in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster BJE2010 Feeding rapamycin to fruit flies extends lifespan via increased autophagy and reduced translation, and still works even in flies already on a lifespan-maximizing diet. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 7
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Linda Partridge.
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- Colin Selman Biogerontologist who studies how diet and nutrient-sensing pathways such as insulin/IGF-1 and mTOR set the pace of ageing
- Dominic J. Withers Studies how hormone and nutrient signaling pathways control metabolism and ageing, including the finding that loss of S6K1 extends lifespan in mice.
- George Thomas Purified and cloned S6K1, the kinase that became the classic readout of mTORC1 activity. His lab later showed that mice lacking S6K1 resist diet-induced obesity, and that amino acids signal to mTORC1 through the lipid kinase hVps34 (GUL2008)
- Ivana Bjedov Studies DNA repair and protein synthesis in ageing; showed that rapamycin extends lifespan in fruit flies
- Luigi Fontana Studies how diet and calorie restriction affect human ageing and metabolic health, and co-wrote a widely cited Science review linking dietary restriction to nutrient-sensing pathways such as mTOR
- Sara C. Kozma Studies the S6K/mTOR pathway and how it controls cell growth, ribosome production, diabetes and cancer, including mTOR signalling in liver cancer.
- Valter D. Longo Studies how nutrient-sensing pathways (including TOR and GH/IGF-1) and diet shape ageing and resistance to stress and disease, from yeast to mice and people.
Every researcher with a profile →
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Linda Partridge is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- upcoming 6th Interventions in Aging Conference 2027 ↗ 16–19 May 2027 ·
Durrës, Albania · ★★ Add to calendar:
Google ·
Apple / Outlook - past 1st EFAR Conference on the Biology of Aging 2026 ↗ 14–16 Oct 2026 ·
Cologne, Germany · ★
All meetings in the calendar →
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