Dr. Paul Robbins is a Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics and the Associate Director of the Masonic Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism (MIBAM) and the Medical Discovery Team on the Biology of Aging at the University of Minnesota. He is also Director of the Minnesota Nathan Shock Center of Excellence on Genome Integrity and Aging.
He was one of the first to identify enhancer elements that regulate transcription at a distance, the first to show that the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor regulates transcription and the first to develop gene therapies for autoimmune disease including an ongoing clinical trial for osteoarthritis. More recently, he was part of a collaborative team that was the first to identify senotherapeutic compounds and biologics, able to reduce the senescent cell burden and extend healthspan and lifespan in mouse models, that are in dozens of clinical trials for age related diseases and conditions.
The Robbins laboratory is focused on developing approaches to extend healthspan by targeting specific hallmarks of aging including genomic instability, cellular senescence, inflammation, stem cell dysfunction and mitochondrial dysfunction. Specific funded projects include: 1) Development and optimization of senotherapeutics able to eliminate or suppress the senescent cell phenotype; 2) Identifying, characterizing and spatially mapping senescent cells with murine and human aging as part of the SenNet Consortium’s effort to develop a 4D map of senescent cells in 18 tissues with aging using cutting edge single cell and spatial transcriptomics and proteomics technologies; 3) Application of young, functional stem cells and their extracellular vesicles (EVs) as therapeutics as well as identifying the miRNAs with the EVs important for their therapeutic effects; 4) Role and therapeutic targeting of IKK/NF-κB signaling in DNA damage-induced senescence, inflammation and aging; 5) Identification of longevity-associated rare variants in centenarians to guide the development of novel drugs able to extend healthspan and lifespan; and 6) Examining the role of the immune system in driving aging and the development of novel approaches to improve immune function with aging.