Systems Biology of Aging external website

Bioinformatics & Structural Biochemistry Department

The Systems Biology of Aging Group was founded by Dr. Robi Tacutu in 2016, and is part of the department of Bioinformatics and Structural Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy. The group is currently funded by a recently awarded EUR 1.9 million grant (Romanian/EU co-funded) for the project “Multi-omics Prediction System for Prioritization of Gerontological Interventions”.

The main areas of interest in the group include studying biology of ageing/biogerontology, systems biology and bioinformatics, overall the expertise required to acheive these spanning multiple research fields (from bioinformatics to synthetic biology).

With a highly multi-disciplinary team, the projects tackeled by the group include both computational aspects (data aggregation and processing, multi-dimensional data analysis, network-based methods, systems theory approaches, deep learning, etc.) as well as wet-lab experiments (in particular in-vivo testing of the computationally predicted interventions).

Include past members.

Robi Tacutu, Ph.D.

Group leader, CS II

A thorough, analytical and curiosity-driven scientist, with a multidisciplinary background in biology and computer science, Robi received his BSc in computer science from the University Politehnica Bucharest, and his MSc in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Bucharest. He has a long-term commitment and interest in the field of biogerontology (since 2005) and received his PhD in 2013 from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in the lab of Prof. Vadim Fraifeld. His thesis was on an ageing-related topic: studying the relationships between aging and age-related diseases with the use of bioinformatics and network biology approaches, and More...

Anton Yurievich Kulaga, M.Phil.

Bioinformatics research assistant

Anton has a formal background in international management and economics (Kyiv National Economic University, 2003 - 2008, M.A. with honors). Being passionate about programming since high school, he worked for many years as More...

Dmitri Toren, Ph.D.

Assistant researcher

Dmitri is a bioinformatics researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry, focusing on curation for aging-related data, analysis of large screen datasets, dataset annotation and network-based analyses. He also holds a Ph.D. d More...

Eugen Ursu, Mr.

Junior Bioinformatician

Eugen Ursu is a researcher in the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy. Eugen is currently working in Systems Biology of Aging in the Bioinformatics & Structural Biochemistry.

Gabriela Bunu, Mrs.

PhD student, Bioinformatics research assistant

Gabriela is a bioinformatics researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry, focussing on curation for aging-related data, analysis of large screen datasets and network-based analyses. She has a multidisciplinary background, More...

Larisa Sârghie, PhD student

Junior Bioinformatician

Larisa Sârghie is a researcher in the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy. Larisa is currently working in Systems Biology of Aging in the Bioinformatics & Structural Biochemistry.

Simona Ghenea, Dr.

Researcher

Simona Ghenea is a researcher in the Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy. Simona is currently working in Molecular Cell Biology in the Molecular Cell Biology.

Year

Ghenea S, Chiritoiu M, Tacutu R, Miranda-Vizuete A, Petrescu SMGhenea S et al . "Targeting EDEM protects against ER stress and improves development and survival in C. elegans", PLoS genetics 18(2): e1010069, (2022)
IF: 5.90AI: 2.47
Knyazer A, Bunu G, Toren D, Mracica TB, Segev Y, Wolfson M, Muradian KK, Tacutu R, Fraifeld VEKnyazer A et al . "Small molecules for cell reprogramming: a systems biology analysis", Aging 13(24): 25739-25762, (2021)
IF: 5.68AI: 1.16
Matei IV, Samukange VNC, Bunu G, Toren D, Ghenea S, Tacutu RMatei IV et al . "Knock-down of odr-3 and ife-2 additively extends lifespan and healthspan in C. elegans", Aging 13(17): 21040-21065, (2021)
IF: 5.60AI: 1.16
Constantinescu V, Chiru C, Boloni T, Florea A, Tacutu RConstantinescu V et al . "Learning flat representations with artificial neural networks", Applied Intelligence(51): 2456–2470, (2021)
IF: 5.09AI: 0.69
Kulaga AY, Ursu E, Toren D, Tyshchenko V, Guinea R, Pushkova M, Fraifeld VE, Tacutu RKulaga AY et al . "Machine Learning Analysis of Longevity-Associated Gene Expression Landscapes in Mammals", International journal of molecular sciences 22(3): 1073, (2021)
IF: 4.56AI: 1.06
Toren D, Yanai H, Abu Taha R, Bunu G, Ursu E, Ziesche R, Tacutu R, Fraifeld VEToren D et al . "Systems biology analysis of lung fibrosis-related genes in the bleomycin mouse model", Scientific reports 11(1): 19269, (2021)
IF: 4.38AI: 1.21
Avelar RA, Ortega JG, Tacutu R, Tyler EJ, Bennett D, Binetti P, Budovsky A, Chatsirisupachai K, Johnson E, Murray A, Shields S, Tejada-Martinez D, Thornton D, Fraifeld VE, Bishop CL, de Magalhães JPAvelar RA et al . "A multidimensional systems biology analysis of cellular senescence in aging and disease", Genome biology 21(1): 91, (2020)
IF: 10.81AI: 9.03
Toren D, Kulaga A, Jethva M, Rubin E, Snezhkina AV, Kudryavtseva AV, Nowicki D, Tacutu R, Moskalev AA, Fraifeld VEToren D et al . "Gray whale transcriptome reveals longevity adaptations associated with DNA repair and ubiquitination", Aging cell 19(7): e13158, (2020)
IF: 7.24AI: 2.61
Bunu G, Toren D, Ion CF, Barardo D, Sârghie L, Grigore LG, de Magalhães JP, Fraifeld VE, Tacutu RBunu G et al . "SynergyAge, a curated database for synergistic and antagonistic interactions of longevity-associated genes", Scientific data 7(1): 366, (2020)
IF: 5.54AI: 3.25
Bucaciuc Mracica T, Anghel A, Ion CF, Moraru CV, Tacutu R, Lazar GABucaciuc Mracica T et al . "MetaboAge DB: a repository of known ageing-related changes in the human metabolome", Biogerontology 21(6): 763-771, (2020)
IF: 3.77AI: 1.13
Martin EC, Sukarta OCA, Spiridon L, Grigore LG, Constantinescu V, Tacutu R, Goverse A, Petrescu AJMartin EC et al . "LRRpredictor-A New LRR Motif Detection Method for Irregular Motifs of Plant NLR Proteins Using an Ensemble of Classifiers", Genes (Basel) 11(3): 286, (2020)
IF: 3.33
Tacutu R, Thornton D, Johnson E, Budovsky A, Barardo D, Craig T, Diana E, Lehmann G, Toren D, Wang J, Fraifeld VE, de Magalhães JPTacutu R et al . "Human Ageing Genomic Resources: new and updated databases", Nucleic acids research 46(D1): D1083-D1090, (2018)
IF: 11.15AI: 4.48
Yanai H, Budovsky A, Barzilay T, Tacutu R, Fraifeld VEYanai H et al . "Wide-scale comparative analysis of longevity genes and interventions", Aging cell 16(6): 1267-1275, (2017)
IF: 7.63AI: 2.30
de Magalhães JP, Lagger C, Tacutu Rde Magalhães JP et al . "Integrative Genomics of Aging", pp 151-171, Handbook of the Biology of Aging, Academic Press, Elsevier, (2021).
ISBN: 978-0-12-815962-0
Tacutu R, Toren D, Ursu E, Bunu G, Bucaciuc Mracica TTacutu R et al . "Healthy Biological Systems", pp 53-78, Explaining Health Across the Sciences, Springer, Cham, (2020).
ISBN: 978-3-030-52662-7

Gerontomics: Multi-omics prediction system for prioritization of gerontological interventions 2016-2021

Acronym: Gerontomics