Podcast appearances and mentions of andrew dillin

About the guest: Andrew Dillin, PhD is Professoer of Molecular & Cell Biology at UC-Berkeley and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His lab studies mechanisms of aging, mitochondrial biology, and related subjects.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Dillin discuss: cell biology; mitochondria & the endoplasmic reticulum; aging & autophagy; mitochondrial biology in neurons; diet, exercise, and oxygen effects on mitochondrial health; and more.*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.Support the Show.All episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack Try Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.Try SiPhox Health—Affordable, at-home bloodwork w/ a comprehensive set of key health marker. Use code TRIKOMES for a 10% discount.Try the Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for $50 off.Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

More than a third of American adults are obese. Experts often call it an epidemic and have long been struggling to find ways to fight obesity. “Knowledge is definitely a great way to combat that. That’s what happened with cigarette smoking when it became obvious this is going to be detrimental. Are we at that stage yet, I don’t think so. We are still going to have an epidemic and people are still becoming more and more obese. And it is a problem and we need to find solutions." That’s Andrew Dillin, a molecular biologist of the University of California, Berkeley. He is looking into the possibility of defeating obesity with our - nose. “Can we actually go through human population, the obese people and actually test their sense of smell? Maybe we can stratify the obese population, attenuating their sense of smell may be very beneficial." This hypothesis is based on Dillin’s recent study. It showed that lab animals without a sense of smell were not gaining extra weight and were losing excessive pounds. Dillin hopes scientists could soon test if this could also work in humans.

Hey there! This week on Science Today, we learned how the sense of smell impacts our metabolism. According to Andrew Dillin, a molecular biologist at UC Berkeley, if there is a lack of smell the body is wired to burn all the food that comes in. It doesn’t store any of it. And Dillin discovered that lab animals lacking a sense of smell remained thin even after gorging on fatty food. “There is something about the wiring of the sensory system of smell into the brain to control the rest of the body’s metabolism." But before you think you’ve found the perfect diet, Dillin says scientists still don’t know exactly how the sensory organs for smell are integrated with the brain. That requires more research in the lab – and then there will be more work looking into if the mice research translates to humans. While on campus, we visited psychologist Robert Levenson, who told us that when it comes to looking after loved ones with dementia, caregivers really need to give it their all. “If you are not able to bring your A game to caregiving, the whole quality of caregiving might suffer. As caregivers get more depressed, their level of the stress sort of permeates the entire household. It might be almost contagious in a way that a virus would be contagious. But this would be a psychological virus." Levenson hopes that social services can step in to help caregivers who are depressed, which would not only improve their quality of life, but boost the mortality of the dementia patients they’re looking after. Well, that’s it for this week. To hear more stories about University of California research, check out UC Science Today on iTunes or Soundcloud. I’m Larissa Branin, thanks for listening. Subscribe to Science Today: iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday Stories mentioned in this roundup: https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/smell_metabolism https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/caregiving_dementia

When you are hungry, you may notice that your sense of smell grows stronger. But what happens to our appetite if we have a stuffy nose? According to Andrew Dillin, a molecular biologist of the University of California, Berkeley, we don’t necessarily eat less, but our metabolism does get affected. “If there is this lack of smell, this perception of the sense of smell, the body is wired to burn all the food that comes in. It doesn’t store any of it." While working on his study, Dillin has discovered that lab animals lacking a sense of smell remained thin even after eating fatty food. “There is something about the wiring of the sensory system of smell into the brain to control the rest of the body’s metabolism." And while this may sound like a great way to lose weight, scientists still don’t know exactly how the sensory organs for smell are integrated with the brain. Dillin says this requires more research in the lab – and then there will be more work looking into if the mice research translates to humans and if they, too, can effectively lose weight if their sense of smell is altered.

In this edition, we hear about a new topical drug that has the ability to darken the skin, with David Fisher, from Cell Reports (00:00); how sense of smell may be tied to metabolism and weight control, with Andrew Dillin, from Cell Metabolism (12:08); and tips on how to make the most out of your next scientific conference, with Shawnna Buttery (19:15).

Our genes may be the blueprint that defines us, but environmental factors can also shape the expression of our genes. This process is known as epigenetics, and according to biologist Andrew Dillin of the University of California, Berkeley, a person’s metabolism early on in life might be able to activate certain genes and influence longevity. "What we hypothesize is that, during these developmental stages when the metabolic status is registered, there’s an epigenetic switch that turns sets of genes on and off." When these genes were turned on, Dillin discovered they extended the lifespan of mice and worms known as nematodes. "And so if you disrupt these epigenetic genes in adulthood, you will erase the signal and then the animals will not live long. And in fact, there are mutations in these genes that are linked to disease in humans. So knowing the basic science behind how these genes work, to epigenetically turn gene sets on and off, we now have the tools to go forward and say, can we find a drug that mimics exactly what we see in our nematode and mouse experiments?"

This is Science Today. Low calorie diets in the early lives of some animals have long been associated with metabolic changes that increase lifespan. In experiments on mice and worms known as C.elegans, biologist Andrew Dillin of the University of California, Berkeley and his team uncovered two critical genes responsible for these striking changes. Dillin’s laboratory also discovered that these metabolic shifts are caused by genetic switches, or enzymes that can control these genes and be manipulated by the researchers as well. "These genes are the number one correlation of extreme longevity. So the ones that are long-lived have these two genes very highly upregulated, and the animals that are short-lived have these two genes downregulated." Basically, the long-lived organisms express these genes more than the short-lived ones. These observations may also reflect aging in humans. "The next step is, can we begin to look at super centenarians, people that are living well into their hundreds. Do they have alterations in these genes that people that are only living to be 80 or 70 don’t have?" For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.