Zimmermann Andreas

Research Interests My main area of research is the regulation of aging at the molecular level and possible anti-aging interventions. In the lab of Frank Madeo have been working extensively on autophagy-activating drugs to ameliorate aging-associated decline of healthspan. I designed a screening platform for anti-aging molecules, which lead to the identification of novel potential therapeutics that were picked up by pharmaceutical companies for drug development. In addition, my research includes basic research questions, like the crosstalk of autophagy with proteasomal activity and as well as de novo lipogenesis. Since a research stay in in the Drosophila lab of Stephan Sigrist in Berlin, I include Drosophila aging models in my research. I am now head of the BioHealth Drosophila platform at the University of Graz, where we recently developed a medium-throughput screening method for geroprotective molecules using automated analyses of climbing performance.