Stephen Helfand

About

Stephen L. Helfand is the George D. Eggleston Endowed Professor of Biochemistry and a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University. He also serves as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Neurology. His research focuses on understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms underlying aging and longevity, primarily using the model system Drosophila melanogaster. Helfand's academic background includes a BS from Stanford University, where he worked with Dr. Norman K. Wessells and discovered the neuronal growth factor later renamed Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor, and an MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his Medical Internship at Montefiore Medical Center and Neurology Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is Board Certified in Neurology. His postdoctoral training included work with Drs. Corey Goodman and David Hogness at Stanford and with John Carlson at Yale. Helfand has held positions at the University of Connecticut Health Center before joining Brown University in 2005. His laboratory's research aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of aging, with notable contributions recognized through awards such as the MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging, the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, and the Glenn Foundation/American Federation of Aging Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award. He has been elected a Fellow of the AAAS and the Gerontological…

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Computational biology

Selected publications

• L1 drives IFN in senescent cells and promotes age-associated inflammation

  Nature · 2019-02-06 · 1232 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• LINE1 Derepression in Aged Wild-Type and SIRT6-Deficient Mice Drives Inflammation

  Cell Metabolism · 2019-03-07 · 493 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The role of retrotransposable elements in ageing and age-associated diseases

  Nature · 2021 · 427 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chromatin-modifying genetic interventions suppress age-associated transposable element activation and extend life span in <i>Drosophila</i>

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2016-09-12 · 225 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile genetic elements, highly enriched in heterochromatin, that constitute a large percentage of the DNA content of eukaryotic genomes. Aging in Drosophila melanogaster is characterized by loss of repressive heterochromatin structure and loss of silencing of reporter genes in constitutive heterochromatin regions. Using next-generation sequencing, we found that transcripts of many genes native to heterochromatic regions and TEs increased with age in fly heads and…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Trimethylation of Lys36 on H3 restricts gene expression change during aging and impacts life span

  Genes & Development · 2015-04-01 · 132 citations

  articleOpen access

  Functional data indicate that specific histone modification enzymes can be key to longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans, but the molecular basis of how chromatin structure modulates longevity is not well understood. In this study, we profiled the genome-wide pattern of trimethylation of Lys36 on histone 3 (H3K36me3) in the somatic cells of young and old Caenorhabditis elegans. We revealed a new role of H3K36me3 in maintaining gene expression stability through aging with important consequences on l…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant K11HD000736

  NIH · $318k · 1989

• NIH Grant R01AG025277

  NIH · $1.5M · 2011

• Control of Gene Expression and Life Span

  NIH · $5.5M · 2004–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Nicola Neretti

  Providence College

  65 shared

• Andreas L. Birkenfeld

  German Center for Diabetes Research

  58 shared

• Jason G. Wood

  Providence College

  51 shared

• W Ruehl

  Urbana University

  50 shared

• Cheng-Yi Chang

  Taichung Hospital

  50 shared

• Blanka Rogina

  UConn Health

  43 shared

• John M. Sedivy

  Brown University

  33 shared

• Johannes H. Bauer

  Klinikum Brandenburg

  32 shared

Education

• B.S.

  Stanford University

• M.D.

  Albert Einstein College of Medicine

• Other, Department of Zoology

  UC London

• Other

  Stanford University

• Other

  Yale University

Awards & honors

• Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar
• MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging
• Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging (…
• Glenn Foundation/American Federation of Aging Research Break…
• Fellow of the AAAS (2017)

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