Ad hoc Seminar - Jürg Bähler, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute Jürg Bähler is Professor of Systems Biology at University College London (UCL), Director of UCL’s Institute of Healthy Ageing. Jürg’s laboratory is currently on secondment at the Francis Crick Institute.The seminar is open to all.Functional and regulatory profiling of unstudied proteins in cellular quiescence, dormancy and ageing in yeast and killifish.AbstractMost research focuses on well-known genes that function in established processes, while other genes remain unexplored. Progress with these unknown genes is staggeringly slow, even in well-studied organisms like yeast, presenting a blind spot in biological research. We have begun investigating the cellular roles of 'priority unstudied' genes that are widely conserved from fission yeast to humans but have not yet been directly studied in any organism. Our recent findings indicate that many of these genes may play ageing-related roles in non-dividing, dormant cells, a state that is also understudied compared to proliferating cells. We broadly characterise these genes in yeast using both unbiased and targeted approaches. We integrate these results with existing datasets to help predict biological processes and guide specialised follow-up research. We are especially interested in dormant states, such as quiescent cells and spores, which feature a reversible cell cycle arrest, increased stress resistance, and reprogramming of gene expression and energy metabolism from growth to maintenance. We observe shared transcriptome and proteome signatures among distinct dormant states: yeast spores, killifish diapause embryos, and human dormant cancer cells. Furthermore, both dormant spores and diapause embryos respond to heat stress with specific genome regulation and show similar gene-expression patterns over time during dormancy. Remarkably, the stress experienced by spores and the length of dormancy seem to be 'remembered' in the vegetative cells that germinate from the spores, as evidenced by differences in gene expression, stress resistance, and chronological lifespan. Nov 13 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm Ad hoc Seminar - Jürg Bähler, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute Functional and regulatory profiling of unstudied proteins in cellular quiescence, dormancy and ageing in yeast and killifish. Room 7.20 Michael Swann Building, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 4 November 2026
Ad hoc Seminar - Jürg Bähler, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute Jürg Bähler is Professor of Systems Biology at University College London (UCL), Director of UCL’s Institute of Healthy Ageing. Jürg’s laboratory is currently on secondment at the Francis Crick Institute.The seminar is open to all.Functional and regulatory profiling of unstudied proteins in cellular quiescence, dormancy and ageing in yeast and killifish.AbstractMost research focuses on well-known genes that function in established processes, while other genes remain unexplored. Progress with these unknown genes is staggeringly slow, even in well-studied organisms like yeast, presenting a blind spot in biological research. We have begun investigating the cellular roles of 'priority unstudied' genes that are widely conserved from fission yeast to humans but have not yet been directly studied in any organism. Our recent findings indicate that many of these genes may play ageing-related roles in non-dividing, dormant cells, a state that is also understudied compared to proliferating cells. We broadly characterise these genes in yeast using both unbiased and targeted approaches. We integrate these results with existing datasets to help predict biological processes and guide specialised follow-up research. We are especially interested in dormant states, such as quiescent cells and spores, which feature a reversible cell cycle arrest, increased stress resistance, and reprogramming of gene expression and energy metabolism from growth to maintenance. We observe shared transcriptome and proteome signatures among distinct dormant states: yeast spores, killifish diapause embryos, and human dormant cancer cells. Furthermore, both dormant spores and diapause embryos respond to heat stress with specific genome regulation and show similar gene-expression patterns over time during dormancy. Remarkably, the stress experienced by spores and the length of dormancy seem to be 'remembered' in the vegetative cells that germinate from the spores, as evidenced by differences in gene expression, stress resistance, and chronological lifespan. Nov 13 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm Ad hoc Seminar - Jürg Bähler, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute Functional and regulatory profiling of unstudied proteins in cellular quiescence, dormancy and ageing in yeast and killifish. Room 7.20 Michael Swann Building, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 4 November 2026
Nov 13 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm Ad hoc Seminar - Jürg Bähler, UCL and The Francis Crick Institute Functional and regulatory profiling of unstudied proteins in cellular quiescence, dormancy and ageing in yeast and killifish.
