Monica Driscoll
Studies the biology of ageing in the roundworm C. elegans, including interventions that extend healthspan and the mechanisms that protect neurons from damage.
Distinguished Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University · Member, US National Academy of Sciences (2023)
Portrait: Rutgers University
Monica Driscoll is a Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. Her laboratory uses the tiny roundworm C. elegans to ask how ageing works and how neurons stay healthy, testing genetic, chemical and exercise interventions that extend healthspan. She was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2023.
She is one of the authors of the 2008 PLoS Genetics study in the Atlas, led by Malene Hansen and Cynthia Kenyon at UCSF. The team asked whether autophagy, the cell's recycling system, is needed for dietary restriction to lengthen life in worms. Dietary restriction and TOR inhibition both produced signs of autophagy, and switching off autophagy genes prevented them from extending lifespan.
The study also found that the autophagy response to dietary restriction depends on the transcription factor PHA-4, and that autophagy alone was not sufficient to extend lifespan. It is one of the early experiments tying TOR signalling, autophagy and longevity together.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | A | A role for autophagy in the extension of lifespan by dietary restriction in C. elegans HAN2008 Co-author: autophagy is required for dietary restriction and TOR inhibition to extend lifespan in C. elegans. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Monica Driscoll.
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- Cynthia Kenyon Showed in 1993 that a single-gene change doubles the lifespan of the worm C. elegans, which opened the study of nutrient-sensing pathways as ageing pathways
- Malene Hansen Showed in worms, alongside a 2007 report from Beth Levine's laboratory, that autophagy is required for dietary restriction to extend lifespan
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