I’m excited to announce our latest publication, which details how naked mole-rats turn off non-shivering thermogenesis in intrascapular brown adipose tissue to save energy in hypoxia. Our study demonstrates that not only are naked mole-rats heterothermic, but that they can rapidly modulate heat production in hypoxia via a novel mechanism that decreases expression of the key thermogenic protein UCP1. Furthermore, similar changes were observed in other social mole-rat species but not a solitary species, suggesting this adaptation may have evolved preferentially in social rodents.

This work was funded by a National Geographic Explorers Grant and was the result of an exciting collaboration with Dr. Nigel Bennett of the University of Pretoria, Glenn Tattersall of Brock University, and Mary-Ellen Harper and Baptiste Lacoste of uOttawa.

Read the full study here: https://rdcu.be/cBR7d

Read a commentary here:

https://tattersalllab.com/2021/11/24/naked-mole-rats-rapidly-decrease-ucp1-in-hypoxia/ 

Read some press coverage here:

https://thefulcrum.ca/sciencetech/u-of-o-professor-studies-hypoxia-tolerance-in-naked-mole-rats/

https://todayuknews.com/health/hypoxia-tolerance-naked-mole-rats-may-provide-secret-to-low-oxygen-survival/

https://floridanewstimes.com/the-naked-mole-rat-may-provide-the-secret-of-hypoxic-survival/382511/

https://medicalxpress.com/visualstories/2021-11-hypoxia-tolerance-naked-mole-rats-secret.amp

Congratulations to Mo, who was just awarded a Special Scholarship from the Faculty of Science. This 3-year award recognizes Mo’s accomplishments during his MSc and his promise as a PhD candidate. Currently, Mo is exploring the regulation of glucose signalling during hypoxia in naked mole-rats.

Congrats to Dan for publishing an excellent review regarding the pitfalls and potentials of comparative studies of aging in Aging Cell!

Last week the lab attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Zoologists in sunny Windsor, Ontario. Six team members gave excellent presentations, highlighted by Dan’s participation in the President’s award competition and Kenny’s poster competing for the Holeton Award. Great job everyone!!

Congratulations to this years’ honours theses students who presented a suite of fantastic posters at the annual BIM thesis poster day today. Great work folks!!!

Congrats to Sarah for publishing the 2nd paper out of her undergrad studies in our lab: “Fossorial Damaraland mole rats do not exhibit a blunted hypercapnic ventilatory response”, which was accepted today in Biology Letters. Good job!

Check out this fantastic feature on Radio-Canada’s Decouverte program: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/decouverte/site/segments/reportage/103459/rat-taupe-nu 

Congratulations to Sarah Zhang for having her USRA work published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology B!

Congratulations to Dan for his recent publication in Aging Cell: “The exceptional longevity of the naked mole-rat may be explained by exceptional mitochondrial antioxidant defenses.”