December, 2023 Eduardo, who already holds MD and MS degrees, will pursue his doctoral research in the Palavicini lab. Bienvenido Eduardo!

Drs. Palavicini and Koronowski have been selected as recipients of the 2024 William and Ella Owens Medical Foundation Award. The project entitled "Modeling late-onset Alzheimer’s via gene-environment interactions: Effects of circadian disruption in mice expressing the whole human MAPT gene" was funded for $200,000.00 for a period of 2 years. https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/2024/04/05/congratulations-to-juan-pablo-palavicini-phd-and-kevin-koronowski-phd-on-their-owens-foundation-award/

Andrea, an undergraduate student majoring in Neuroscience at Trinity University, just joined the Palavicini lab. Andrea is interested in neurodegeneration, behavioral science, psychological disorders, and neurochemistry. She will help us with the our new project in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Koronowski, where we are studying the effects of environmental circadian rhythm disruption on behavior Alzheimer's-like behavior and neuropathologies.

Dr. Palavicini received the Keystone Symposia Early Career Investigator Travel Award (ECITA) to attend the upcoming meeting on "Neuroimmune Interactions: Nervous System and Immune Cell Heterogeneity in Health and Disease", Jun 3 - Jun 6, 2024, in Santa Fe, NM.

Dr. Palavicini received the Early Career Faculty Travel Award to attend the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) 2024 Annual Meeting in Arlington, VA to be held April 25-26.

Dr. Juan Pablo Palavicini was named as the first Leader-in-Training of the San Antonio Claude D. Pepper Center Pre-clinical Research Core. Together with Drs. Adam Salmon and Cory Ross, Dr. Palavicini will provide knowledge, skills, and technical support to assist OAIC investigators in using the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) as a pre-clinical model for aging interventions (mainly pharmacological). This core provides to OAIC investigators resources (including access to geriatric marmosets) and services to assist with pre-clinical translation projects, including reverse translational projects to develop novel marmoset models of age-related dysfunction. https://sapepper.barshop.uthscsa.edu/cores/pcrc/

Each year, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences selects a student to receive the UT Health SA Presidential Ambassador Scholarship. Eduardo Gutierrez Kuri, a first year PhD student and first graduate student in the Palavicini lab, has been nominated for this Scholarship by the IBMS Neuroscience discipline. Congratulations Eduardo, we are rooting for you!

Functional lipidomics reveals a novel molecular mechanism underlying improved metabolic function and lifespan extension in remarkably long-lived mice Lipids, major constituents of cells, play essential biological functions, serving not only as structural components of cellular membranes, major storage depots, and fuel sources, but also as important signaling molecules and cellular messengers. Taking advantage of a state-of-the-art technology, known as shotgun lipidomics, that enables the large-scale study of pathways and networks of cellular lipids in biological systems, Dr. Palavicini's laboratory has analyzed how aging alters the lipidome. Unbiased analyses point to a handful lipid classes that accumulate with age in multiple organs and animal models, including ceramides, which have been genetically associated with longevity and mechanistically linked with multiple hallmarks of aging. Remarkably, the Palavicini lab recently found that ceramides are dramatically reduced in extremely long-lived growth hormone-deficient mice. Dr. Palavicini proposes to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying ceramide deficiency in long-lived mice, and to test if ceramide deficiency is sufficient and necessary to extend mammalian lifespan. https://www.afar.org/grantee-profiles/juan-palavicini

La Nacion, Costa Rica's leading daily newspaper, highlighted Dr. Palavicini's participation in the first clinicial trial of senolytic therapy for Alzheimer's disease, published in Nature Medicine on September 07, 2023. https://www.nacion.com/ciencia/salud/tratar-alzheimer-con-una-pildora-el-estudio/HMZQGMYFXVFBFJLGTXLVDMIQHM/story/

By Gina Jenkins (Barshop Institute, UT Health SA) Dr. Juan Pablo Palavicini has received a Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) Coordinating Center award for $100,000. The multi-center pilot project is titled “Inhibition of ceramide synthesis: a viable strategy to reverse metabolic determinants of sarcopenic obesity”.  Dr. Palavicini is named the principal investigator on the pilot award and will be working with co-principal investigator Andrew Murton, PhD from the University of Texas Medical Branch. https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/2023/11/22/congratulations-to-juan-pablo-palavicini-phd-on-his-pepper-oaic-coordinating-center-award/

Grantee Spotlight Interview Juan Pablo Palavicini, PhD Assistant Professor, UT Health San Antonio Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty - 2022 What inspired you to pursue aging research? Early on, during my undergraduate studies, I became fascinated by the extremely intricate and heavily regulated cellular system. So much that I decided to leave my home country, Costa Rica, to pursue a PhD in biochemistry. During my postdoctoral studies at Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and at Sanford Burnhan Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, I became interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive major age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s and diabetes. More recently, I found my dream niche in geroscience: the intersection of basic aging biology, chronic disease, and health. As a biochemist geek, I cannot think of anything more exciting than understanding the molecular mechanisms behind aging, while searching for interventions that can make us live healthier and longer. In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean for you to receive an AFAR grant now? It is not an overstatement to say that AFAR is the prime catalyst of the aging field in the US. It is hard to find a leading investigator in the field of geroscience that has not received startup funds from AFAR. I am honored to be a part of this select list of investigators that have benefited from the leading not-for-profit organization supporting biomedical aging research. When I heard the news that my project was funded, I literally cried of happiness. Biomedical research is an extremely competitive and tough business, even more so for those of us coming from developing countries (Costa Rica in my case) with a humble scientific pedigree. To me personally, receiving this grant is a realization that passion and hard work eventually do pay off, particularly when you sparkle a little bit of creativity. I feel like I got a precious train ticket to Geroland, the place where geroscientists are figuring out how we can live a longer and healthier life! What is exciting about your research’s potential impact? Imagine celebrating your 100th birthday while still exhibiting cognitive function that is comparable to that of an average middle-aged individual, imagine having one or even two extra decades of healthy life to explore this world, imagine witnessing a whole century of history unfold before your eyes, imagine seeing your great-grandchildren become adults and meeting your great-great-grandchildren; not because you are one genetically privileged individual (currently, it is estimated that ~6 people in 10,000 become centenarians), but rather because of geroscience-based therapies that will enable not only you, but also your significant other, your contemporary cousins and friends, and your whole generation live a healthier and longer life. This is the impact that the geroscience field as a whole, including my research, could have on humanity! My laboratory is in the process of discovering specific molecules, lipids in particular, that are altered with age and are involved with the aging process. Our hypothesis is that modulation of specific lipids associated with the biology of aging is one of the best strategies to extend healthspan and lifespan. Preliminary studies from my laboratory suggest that this strategy is not just feasible, but also very effective, at least in animal models, including mammals. How would you describe your research to a non-scientist? My laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms and pathways that drive the aging process. Specifically, my research focuses on lipids, one of the major and most diverse constituents of cells that are frequently overlooked and underrated, in part due to the technical difficulties of quantifying them. I take advantage of a state-of-the-art technology, developed by my former mentor, Dr. Xianlin Han, that enables accurate detection of a large number of lipid molecules. During the last several years, I have been searching for lipids that are universally affected by the aging process; in other words, lipids whose levels change with age in a consistent manner in multiple organs and animal models. In addition, I have also been studying lipids in long-lived animal models and in animals treated with pro-longevity therapies. Our results so far are extremely promising, we have found a number of novel lipid classes that are tightly associated with the aging process, and we have multiple lines of evidence that at least one of these lipid classes, known as ceramides, seems to be a novel driver of aging. My AFAR-funded project is testing, among other things, if ceramide-lowering therapies extend healthspan and lifespan in mice.

Shared by Gina Jenkins Juan Pablo Palavicini, PhD and Xianlin Han, PhD have been named co-PIs for their project, “Identification and validation of plasma-based lipid biomarkers for early Alzheimer’s disease in the unique, primarily Hispanic, South Texas population.”  The project will be funded by Cure Alzheimer’s Fund for two years.  Dr. Palavicini is an Assistant Professor/Research with the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the Department of Medicine in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine.  Dr. Han is a Professor with the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the Department of Medicine in the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. https://barshopinstitute.uthscsa.edu/2023/01/18/congratulations-to-juan-pablo-palavicini-phd-and-xianlin-han-phd-on-their-grant-from-cure-alzheimers-fund/