Brian C. Jones, PhD
Biography
Graduated: January 2017
Current location: Yale University, New Haven, CT
Mentor: Stephen L. Helfand
Description of trainee's research project and progress: Brian Jones was a student in the lab of Professor Stephen Helfand. His project examined how cellular mechanisms of transposable element repression change with age and how the loss of these mechanisms impacts somatic tissue aging in Drosophila melanogaster. Brian matriculated at Brown in September 2011. He was supported for two years by this T32 (09/01/12-08/31/14). In 2014 Brian was awarded a F31 NRSA from the NIA (AG047736) that supported him through the end of his graduate studies. He successfully defended his Ph.D. on January 17, 2017 (time to Ph.D. defense, 5.4 years). He contributed to the publication of four papers while at Brown. He subsequently pursued postdoctoral studies at Yale University with Dr. Josien van Wolfswinkel, Ph.D. He currently hold the position of Scientist II at Sangamo Therapeutics.
Publications:
1) Brian C. Jones, JG Wood, C Chang, A Tam, MJ Franklin, ER Siegel and SL Helfand, “A somatic piRNA pathway in the Drosophila fat body suppresses transposable elements ensuring metabolic homeostasis and normal lifespan.” This paper was reviewed at Nature Communications and additional experiments were requested. Brian has performed these experiments, revised the text, and resubmitted the manuscript for a second round of peer review.
2) Jason G. Wood, Brian C. Jones, N Jiang, C Chang, P Wickremesinghe, M Garcia, L Burhenn, N Neretti and SL Helfand, “Chromatin modifying genetic interventions suppress age-associated transposable element activation and extend lifespan in Drosophila.” This was submitted to PNAS, fully reviewed, and accepted.
3) Jill A. Kreiling*, Brian C. Jones*, Jason G. Wood, Marco De Cecco, Steven W. Criscione, Nicola Neretti, Stephen L. Helfand, and John M. Sedivy. (*co-first authors) “Human retrotransposons in Health and Disease: Contribution of Retrotransposable Elements to Aging”, Springer Press, 2016. [Accepted]
4) Yiannis A. Savva, James E. C. Jepson, Yao-Jen Chang, Rachel Whitaker, Brian C. Jones, Georges St. Laurent, Michael R. Tackett, Philipp Kapranov, Nan Jiang, Guyu Du, Stephen L. Helfand, and Robert A. Reenan. “RNA editing regulates transposon-mediated heterochromatic gene silencing.” Nature Communications, 2013.
Conference presentations:
1) Jones BC, Wood JG, Tam AD, Henriksen M, Chang C, Helfand SL. A somatic piRNA pathway in Drosophila fat body with aging associated implications. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Conference on Regulatory and Non-Coding RNAs, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, August 26-30, 2014, (Abstract-talk).
2) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Helfand SL. Activation of transposable elements across multiple tissues in aging Drosophila. Annual Drosophila Research Conference, Chicago, IL, March 4-8, 2015, (Abstract-poster).
3) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Helfand SL. Activation of transposable elements across multiple tissues in aging Drosophila. Gordon Research Seminar: Biology of Aging, Sunday River, ME, July 18-19, 2015, (Abstract-poster).
4) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Helfand SL. Activation of transposable elements across multiple tissues in aging Drosophila. Gordon Research Conference: Biology of Aging, Sunday River, ME, July 19-24, 2015, (Abstract-talk).
5) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Tam AD, Franklin MJ, Siegel ER, Helfand SL. A somatic piRNA pathway in Drosophila fat body with aging-associated implications. Providence Area Aging Research Forum, Brown University, Providence, RI, April 14, 2015, (Talk).
6) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Tam AD, Franklin MJ, Siegel ER, Helfand SL. Characterizing a somatic piRNApathway in the Drosophila fat body. Providence Area Aging Research Forum, Brown University, Providence, RI, March 3, 2014, (Talk).
7) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Tam AD, Franklin MJ, Siegel ER, Helfand SL. A somatic piRNA pathway in the Drosophila fat body suppresses transposable elements ensuring metabolic homeostasis. Glenn Symposium on Biology of Aging, Yale University, New Haven, CT, November 4, 2016, (Abstract-talk).
8) Jones BC, Wood JG, Chang C, Tam AD, Franklin MJ, Siegel ER, Helfand SL. A somatic piRNA pathway in the Drosophila fat body suppresses transposable elements ensuring metabolic homeostasis and normal lifespan. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Conference on Regulatory and Non-Coding RNAs, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, August 23-27, 2016, (Abstract-talk).
Fellowships and other support: F31 AG047736, "Dissecting the role of RNAi in the aging fat body of Drosophila melanogaster", start date 9/15/2014.
Honors:
Best poster award, MCB Graduate Program retreat, 2013
Best poster award, MCB Graduate Program retreat, 2015 (and gave talk at 2016 MCB retreat)