van Oosten-Hawle Lab 

Organismal Stress Signaling and Proteostasis Networks in Aging & Disease

Our lab studies how cells and tissues communicate stress signals to maintain organismal health and longevity. Our research focuses on how proteostasis networks and inter-tissue signaling pathways coordinate stress responses across the whole organism. 

Using the multicellular model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, we investigate how communication between the nervous system, intestine, and germline regulates stress resilience, metabolism, and aging. Our work has contributed to the discovery and characterization of transcellular chaperone signaling (TCS), a mechanism that coordinates proteostasis between tissues. Our goal is to understand how stress response networks maintain organismal health and to reveal fundamental mechanisms that promote resilience during aging and age-associated degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease.