Marc Tatar
Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Davis

We aim to understand two key elements of animal life history and how they are interdependent – the schedules of mortality and of reproduction. We investigate these traits at many levels of biological organization and with a range of animal model systems, including Drosophila, baboons, and other insects. Much of our work is framed in the context of the biology of aging. While a decrease in the force of natural selection with age is likely to contribute to the evolution of life span, understanding how such selective neglect actually moulds the ubiquitous yet various patterns of senescence requires that we first uncover the proximal details of aging. To this end we use Drosophila melanogaster as a powerful genetic system. We find that insulin/insulin growth factor signaling is a key regulator of fly lifespan. With direct molecular tools are currently studying how this hormonal system affects fly aging and how it might modulate the well-known trade-off between reproduction and life span. We investigate how the FOXO target transcription factor of insulin/IGF signaling is affected by manipulations that extend lifespan, such as via dietary restriction and reduced germline stem cells. We seek to find the transcriptional targets of FOXO responsible for delayed aging. We also are searching for alternative hormonal regulators of fly aging, and particularly to understand how ecdysone and juvenile hormone modulate both lifespan and reproduction. Besides life span, we study aspects of functional aging in the fly with a particular interest in the innate immune system. To translate our insights from Drosophila to other organisms and to an evolutionary framework we investigate parallel problems in a comparative context. Baboons are our favorite nonhuman primate model where we have conducted several demographic level studies. Current work with the baboon seeks to uncover the genetic basis of reproductive aging through linkage analysis.

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Education
1980	B.A. Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana (Biology)
1986	M.A. University of California, Davis (Zoology)
1994	Ph.D. University of California, Davis (Ecology)
Positions
2003-present 2001-2003	Associate Professor of Biology, Brown University Manning Assistant Professor, Brown University
1997-present	Assistant Professor, Brown University
1994-1997	Postdoctoral Associate, University of Minnesota
Honors
2002	Participant in National Academy of Sciences/Beckman Frontiers of Science Symposium
2001-Present	Manning Assistant Professor, Brown University
1999-2003	Ellison Medical Foundation, New Scholar Award
1997-1998	American Federation of Aging Research, Research Fellowship
Service
Professional	Referee to Nature, Science, Nature Genetics, Evolution, Ecology, Proceedings Royal Society, Experimental Gerontology, Journal Insect Ecology, Oecologia, Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Journal of Gerontology, Genetica, Genetical Research. Journal Insect Physiology, J. Experimental Biology, Molecular Ecology, Trends in Genetics
	Reviewer (ad hoc) NSF-BSR and NSF-EEP
	NIH Special Emphasis Review Panels: 2000, 2001, 2002
	Editorial Review Board: Demographic Research (1998- present), Mechanisms of Aging and Development (1999-present)
	Joint Editor-in-Chief: Aging Cell (Blackwell, launched October, 2002)
	American Federation of Aging Research, National Scientific Advisory Council (2002)
University	Co-organized colloquium “Biology of Human Aging” (1998-2002)

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