Reji Babygirija
Researcher in Dudley Lamming's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies how restricting single amino acids in the diet affects metabolism, memory and Alzheimer's disease in mice
Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Lamming lab, papers from 2022) · earlier: Department of Surgery and Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Aurora Research Institute, Milwaukee (papers 2012–2021)
Reji Babygirija was first author of a 2026 Advanced Science paper in this Atlas (BAB2025), first posted as a preprint. Branched-chain amino acids, leucine, isoleucine and valine, are building blocks of protein, and they act differently on mTORC1, the growth-control complex: leucine is a strong activator. The study restricted each of the three separately in 3xTg mice, a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The effects on memory and Alzheimer's-type brain changes were distinct for each amino acid and differed between males and females. Cutting isoleucine or valine, but not leucine, improved metabolic health. The results come from mice and point to diet composition, not just total protein, as something that matters.
Before joining Lamming's group, Babygirija worked at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. As first author of a 2012 Brain Research paper from Takahashi's group in the Department of Surgery, Babygirija showed in rats that social interaction softened stress responses after chronic stress in animals separated from their mothers early in life. Later papers from Milwaukee covered visceral pain after bladder inflammation in young rats (2017), irritable bowel symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease (2019) and electro-acupuncture against chronic stress (2021).
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the graduate program in cellular and molecular biology, Babygirija has co-authored many of the Lamming lab's diet studies, including a 2022 Cell Metabolism paper showing that sex and genetic background shape how mice respond to protein restriction. PubMed lists more than 60 papers with the name.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Restriction of individual branched-chain amino acids has distinct effects on the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease in 3xTg mice BAB2025 First author: restricted each branched-chain amino acid separately in Alzheimer's model mice and found distinct, sex-specific effects, with isoleucine and valine restriction improving metabolic health. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 2
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Reji Babygirija.
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- Bailey A. Knopf Graduate student in Dudley Lamming's lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and first author of a 2026 review that sets out the hallmarks of protein and amino acid restriction in aging
- Dudley W. Lamming Showed as a postdoc that rapamycin's harm to glucose metabolism comes largely from its effect on mTORC2, while the lifespan benefit tracks mTORC1. His Wisconsin lab studies intermittent rapamycin dosing and how restricting dietary protein or single amino acids affects metabolism and ageing
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