Ò°ÀÇÉçÇø

Research Interests
Genetics, Molecular Biology, Aging, Skeletal Muscle Biology

Dr. Hunt received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and subsequently completed a Ph.D. there researching how signaling proteins influence skeletal muscle pathologies and muscle regeneration. He then undertook a postdoctoral research position at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Ò°ÀÇÉçÇø to study genetic modifiers of muscle growth and aging. 

At Ò°ÀÇÉçÇø College, Dr. Hunt’s research focuses on an important question: how can we slow declining cellular homeostasis and maintain greater muscle function in old age? As cells in our bodies age, molecular alterations are accumulated that eventually limit cellular homeostasis and function, and lead to visible signs of aging that limit quality of life. Dr. Hunt utilizes Drosophila Melanogaster (fruit fly) genetic models to identify evolutionarily conserved genes and molecular pathways that contribute to declining skeletal muscle function and aging.

The fruit fly is an excellent model system to answer this question because genes are generally well conserved from flies to humans, they have a short life-cycle amenable to rapid testing even in the context of aging, and a strong history in biological research that has led to libraries of genetic variants and transgenic flies becoming available to test. In the Hunt Lab ongoing research projects that students can participate in include:

1. Elucidating novel mechanisms regulating transcriptional responses and animal survival during heat stress within muscle cells of Drosophila Melanogaster – This project studies the molecular mechanisms regulating transcription and expression of heat stress responsive genes, which are more highly expressed in skeletal muscle as the cells age. The Hunt lab utilizes a cell specific expression system to silence genes only in adult skeletal muscle cells of flies and examines changes in heat responsive gene transcription and how this impacts animal survival and muscle function during heat stress.

2. Epigenetic modification as a regulator of skeletal muscle function and aging – This project aims to determine whether changes in chromatin state and gene expression, caused by epigenetic modifications such as histone acetylation and methylation lead to the age associated decline in skeletal muscle function. The Hunt lab utilizes a range of genetic tools in flies including reporters of Position Effect Variegation that can report on gene expression from non-permissive chromatin at certain chromosomal loci, genomic mutations, and cell specific expression to understand how epigenetic modifications regulate chromatin state, gene expression and subsequently impact skeletal muscle function.

If you are interested in participating in undergraduate research with Dr. Hunt, please contact him by email.

Selected publications (* denotes undergraduate student authors/contributors)

LC Hunt, K Nyamkondiwa*, A Stephan, J Jiao, K Kavdia, V Pagala, J Peng, F Demontis
bioRxiv 2024

LC Hunt, V Pagala, A Stephan, B Xie, K Kodali, K Kavdia, YD Wang, A Shirinifard, M Curley, FA Graca, Y Fu, S Poudel, Y Li, X Wang, H Tan, J Pen, F Demontis
Nature Communications 2023

LC Hunt, F Demontis
The Journals of Gerontology 2022

FA Graca, N Sheffield*, M Puppa, D Finkelstein, LC Hunt, F Demontis
PLoS Genetics 2021

Liam C Hunt, Flavia A Graca, Vishwajeeth Pagala, Yong-Dong Wang, Yuxin Li, Zuo-Fei Yuan, Yiping Fan, Myriam Labelle, Junmin Peng, Fabio Demontis
Cell reports 2021

Liam C Hunt, Bronwen Schadeberg*, Jared Stover*, Benard Haugen*, Vishwajeeth Pagala, Yong-Dong Wang, Jason Puglise, Elisabeth R Barton, Junmin Peng, Fabio Demontis
Nature communications 2021

Liam C Hunt, Jared Stover*, Benard Haugen*, Timothy I Shaw, Yuxin Li, Vishwajeeth R Pagala, David Finkelstein, Elisabeth R Barton, Yiping Fan, Myriam Labelle, Junmin Peng, Fabio Demontis
Cell reports 2019

Liam C Hunt, Jianqin Jiao, Yong-Dong Wang, David Finkelstein, Deepti Rao, Michelle Curley, Maricela Robles-Murguia, Abbas Shirinifard, Vishwajeeth R Pagala, Junmin Peng, Yiping Fan, Fabio Demontis
Genome Research 2019

Liam C Hunt, Beisi Xu, David Finkelstein, Yiping Fan, Patrick A Carroll, Pei-Feng Cheng, Robert N Eisenman, Fabio Demontis
Genes & Development 2015