Slava Labunskyy, PhD

Associate Professor of Dermatology

Academic Titles

Associate Professor of Dermatology

Summary

The primary research focus of our lab is the biology of aging and understanding the basic mechanisms that underlie the pathogenesis of age-related diseases. We are particularly interested in studying the nature of senescence factors and understanding how stress-response signaling regulates aging.  In our work we utilize ribosome profiling and next-generation sequencing, and a combination of molecular and biochemical approaches to look at transcriptional and translational changes that are associated with the aging process as well as the mechanisms of such regulation in eukaryotic cells. A second major focus of the laboratory is synthetic biology and developing new bioengineering approaches that can be used to study complex traits, such as longevity, using yeast S. cerevisiae as a model organism.

We hope that our studies will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms that regulate aging and will help to identify new targets for therapeutic intervention for age-related diseases.


Education

2002-BS/MS-Biochemistry, summa cum laude, Donetsk National University, Donetsk, Ukraine
2008-PhD-Biochemistry, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
2009-2014-Postdoctoral Fellow-Brigham &Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA


Research Interests

  • Molecular Mechanisms of Aging
  • Functional Genomics
  • Stress Signaling
  • Synthetic Biology


Selected Publications

  1. Beaupere C, Labunskyy VM. (2019) (Un)folding mechanisms of adaptation to ER stress: lessons from aneuploidy. Current Genetics, 65(2):467-471. PMID: 30511161
  2. Beaupere C, Dinatto L, Wasko BM, Chen RB, VanValkenburg L, Kiflezghi MG, Lee MB, Promislow DEL, Dang W, Kaeberlein M, Labunskyy VM (2018) Genetic screen identifies adaptive aneuploidy as a key mediator of ER stress resistance in yeast. PNAS, 115(38):9586-9591. PMID: 30185560
  3. Beaupere C, Chen RB, Pelosi W, Labunskyy VM(2017) Genome-wide quantification of translation in budding yeast by ribosome profiling. J Vis Exp, 130:e56820. PMID: 29286414
  4. Lorusso JS, Sviderskiy OA, Labunskyy VM (2018) Emerging omics approaches in aging research. Antioxid Redox Signal, 29(10):985-1002. PMID: 28874057
  5. Beaupere C, Wasko BM, Lorusso J, Kennedy BK, Kaeberlein M, and Labunskyy VM. (2017) CAN1 arginine permease deficiency extends yeast replicative lifespan via translational activation of stress response genes. Cell Reports, 18, 1884-1892. PMID: 28228255
  6. Gao J, Barroso C, Zhang P, Kim HM, Li S, Labrador L, Lightfoot J, Gerashchenko MV, Labunskyy VM, Dong MQ, Martinez-Perez E, Colaiácovo MP. (2016) N-terminal acetylation promotes synaptonemal complex assembly in C. elegans. Genes Dev, 30, 2404-2416. PMID: 27881602
  7. Labunskyy VM, Gerashchenko MV, Delaney JR, Kaya A, Kennedy BK, Kaeberlein M, and Gladyshev VN. (2014) Lifespan extension conferred by endoplasmic reticulum secretory pathway deficiency requires induction of the unfolded protein response. PLoS Genet, 10, e1004019. PMID: 24391512
  8. Labunskyy VM, Suzuki Y, Hanly TJ, Murao A, Roth FP, Gladyshev VN. (2014) The insertion Green Monster (iGM) method for expression of multiple exogenous genes in yeast. G3 (Bethesda)  4, 1183-1191. PMID: 24776987
  9. Labunskyy VM, Hatfield DL, and Gladyshev VN. (2014) Selenoproteins: molecular pathways and physiological roles. Physiol Rev 94, 739-777. PMID: 24987004
  10. Labunskyy VM, Gladyshev VN (2013) Role of reactive oxygen species-mediated signaling in aging. Antioxid Redox Signal, 19(12):1362-72. PMID: 22901002
  11. Suzuki Y, St Onge RP, Mani R, King OD, Heilbut A, Labunskyy VM, Chen W, Pham L, Zhang LV, Tong AH, Nislow C, Giaever G, Gladyshev VN, Vidal M, Schow P, Lehár J, Roth FP (2011) Knocking out multigene redundancies via cycles of sexual assortment and fluorescence selection. Nature Methods, 8(2):159-64. PMID: 21217751

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