Stephen Treaster

Computational biologist with a focus on aging and age-related diseases, leveraging natural examples of exceptional longevity to decipher mechanisms of senescence resistance. Animals that resist the rigors of time well past a human lifespan, that maintain health and function for centuries, will inform therapies to prevent aging and age-related diseases in people.

Related Projects

Aging and stem cells

Cellular renewal in time and space.

Evolution in the extremes

Lessons in development and climate resiliency.

Comparative genomics of longevity

The tortoise and the hare and the grim reaper. How some species keep ahead, while others get caught early.

TRACCER: tool for relative evolutionary rate convergence

How to associate genes with functions through shared occurences of traits.

Publications

• Treaster S., Deelen J., Daane J., Murabito J., Karasik K., Harris MP. (2023) Convergent genomics of longevity in rockfishes highlights the genetics of human life span variation. Science Advances 2023 Jan 11;9(2):eadd2743[link]
  • Highlighted in:
    • The Scientist: Rockfish Genes Hold Clues to Human Longevity.
    • Popular Science: What rockfish genes can teach humans about living past 100.
    • Germany National Public Radio
    • Austria National Public Radio
    • Drug Discovery News: New genetic pathways involved in aging

• Treaster S., Daane J., Harris MP. (2021) Refining Convergent Rate Analysis with Topology in Mammalian Longevity and Marine Transitions. Mol. Biol. Evol. 38, 5190–5203.[link]

• Treaster S., Karasik, D., and Harris, MP. (2021) Footprints in the Sand: Deep Taxonomic Comparisons in Vertebrate Genomics to Unveil the Genetic Programs of Human Longevity. Front. Genet. 12.[link]

• Peskin B., Henke K., Cumplido N., Treaster S., Harris M., Bagnat M., Arratia G. (2020) Notochordal Signals Establish Phylogenetic Identity of the Teleost Spine. Current Biology [link]

• Li C, Barton C, Henke K, Daane J, Treaster S, Caetano-Lopes J, Tanguay RL, Harris MP. (2020) celsr1a is essential for tissue homeostasis and onset of aging phenotypes in the zebrafish. eLife 9, e50523 [link]

• Treaster, S.B., Chaudhuri, A.R., Austad, S.N. (2015) Longevity and GAPDH Stability in Bivalves and Mammals: A Convenient Marker for Comparative Gerontology and Proteostasis. PLoS ONE 10, e0143680 [link]

• Treaster, S.B., Ridgway, I.D., Richardson, C.A., Gaspar, M.B., Chaudhuri, A.R., and Austad, S.N. (2014). Superior proteome stability in the longest-lived animal. AGE 36, 9597. [link]

• Zhang, Y., Bokov, A., Gelfond, J., Soto, V., Ikeno, Y., Hubbard, G., Diaz, V., Sloane, L., Maslin, K., Treaster, S., et al. (2014). Rapamycin extends life and health in C57BL/6 mice. J. Gerontol. A. Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 69, 119-30 [link]

• Sung, L.-Y., Chang, C.-C., Amano, T., Lin, C.-J., Amano, M., Treaster, S.B., Xu, J., Chang, W.-F., Nagy, Z.P., Yang, X., et al. (2010). Efficient derivation of embryonic stem cells from nuclear transfer and parthenogenetic embryos derived from cryopreserved oocytes. Cell. Reprogramming 12, 203–211. [link]