- Home
- About Us
- Divisions
- Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine
- Allergy and Immunology
- Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies
- Cardiology
- Child Advocacy
- Emergency Medicine
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
- General Academic Pediatrics
- Genetic and Genomic Medicine
- Health Informatics
- Hematology-Oncology
- Infectious Diseases
- Nephrology
- Neurology and Child Development
- Newborn Medicine
- Paul C. Gaffney Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine
- Pulmonology
- Rheumatology
- Centers & Institutes
- Center for Pediatric Research in Obesity and Metabolism
- Center for Rare Disease Therapy
- Children's Neuroscience Institute
- Cystic Fibrosis Research Center
- Institute for Infection, Inflammation, and Immunity in Children
- Pediatric Asthma Center
- Pediatric Institute for Heart Regeneration and Therapeutics
- Richard King Mellon Foundation Institute for Pediatric Research
- Pittsburgh Vaccine Trials Unit
- The Pittsburgh Study
- Research
- Diversity
- Education
- Faculty Affairs
- News
- People
- Podcasts
Francis Amrit Gandhi, PhD
- Research Assistant Professor
The last few decades have seen a global rise in the elderly population driven mainly by advances in science, cutting-edge medicine, and ever-improving standards of care and living. As this trajectory continues at an unprecedented rate, it is quickly becoming a major public health concern due to the corresponding upsurge in age-related diseases. While numerous approaches have been employed to gain a better understanding of aging, the complex and dynamic molecular networks underlying this process remain poorly understood. Dr. Amrit’s research focuses on identifying and understanding such molecular mechanisms aimed at increasing the healthy years of living. In particular, he studies the molecular basis of aging and how different aspects of physiology such as metabolism, reproduction, immunity, and stress resilience impact this paradigm.
Professional and Scientific Society Memberships
- Genetics Society of America, 2011-Present
Education & Training
- BS, Biotechnology, Genetics, and Biochemistry, Bangalore University, 2004
- MS, Pharmacology and Biotechnology, Sheffield Hallam University, 2005
- PhD, Biosciences (Molecular Evolutionary Biology), University of Birmingham, 2010
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Molecular Genetics of Aging, University of Pittsburgh, 2011-2016
- Research Associate, Molecular Genetics of Aging, University of Pittsburgh, 2016-2018
Selected Publications
Amrit FRG, Boehnisch CM, May RC. Phenotypic covariance of longevity, immunity and stress resistance in the caenorhabditis nematodes. PLoS One. 2010;5(4):e9978. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009978. PubMed PMID: 20369008; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2848519.
Ratnappan R, Amrit FRG, Chen SW, Gill H, Holden K, Ward J, et al. Germline signals deploy NHR-49 to modulate fatty-acid beta-oxidation and desaturation in somatic tissues of C. elegans. PLoS genetics. 2014;10(12):e1004829. Epub 2014/12/05. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004829. PubMed PMID: 25474470; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4256272. Recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field.
Keith SA, Amrit FRG, Ratnappan R, Ghazi A. The C. elegans healthspan and stress-resistance assay toolkit. Methods (San Diego, Calif). 2014;68(3):476-86. Epub 2014/04/15. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2014.04.003. PubMed PMID: 24727065.
Amrit FRG, Ratnappan R, Keith SA, Ghazi A. The C. elegans lifespan assay toolkit. Methods (San Diego, Calif). 2014;68(3):465-75. Epub 2014/04/15. doi: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2014.04.002. PubMed PMID: 24727064.
Amrit FRG, Steenkiste EM, Ratnappan R, Chen SW, McClendon TB, Kostka D, et al. DAF-16 and TCER-1 Facilitate Adaptation to Germline Loss by Restoring Lipid Homeostasis and Repressing Reproductive Physiology in C. elegans. PLoS genetics. 2016;12(2):e1005788. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005788. PubMed PMID: 26862916. Recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field.
McClendon TB, Mainpal R, Amrit FRG, Krause MW, Ghazi A, Yanowitz JL. X Chromosome Crossover Formation and Genome Stability in Caenorhabditis elegans Are Independently Regulated by xnd-1. G3 (Bethesda). 2016;6(12):3913-25. doi: 10.1534/g3.116.035725. PubMed PMID: 27678523.
Amrit FRG and Ghazi A. Transcriptomic Analysis of C. elegans RNA Sequencing Data through the Tuxedo Suite on the Galaxy Project. Journal of Visual Experimentation 2017;(122). doi: 10.3791/55473. PubMed PMID: 28448031
Amrit FRG, Naim N, Ratnappan R, Loose J, Mason C, Steenberge L, McClendon BT, Wang G, Driscoll M, Yanowitz JL, Ghazi A.Amrit FRG, Naim N, Ratnappan R, Loose J, Mason C, Steenberge L, McClendon BT, Wang G, Driscoll M, Yanowitz JL, Ghazi A. The longevity-promoting factor, TCER-1, widely represses stress resistance and innate immunity. Nature communications. 2019;10(1):3042. Epub 2019/07/19. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10759-z. PubMed PMID: 31316054; PMCID: PMC6637209. Recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field.
Schiffer JA, Servello FA, Heath WR, Amrit FRG, et al. Caenorhabditis elegans processes sensory information to choose between freeloading and self-defense strategies. Elife. 2020;9:e56186. Published 2020 May 5. doi:10.7554/eLife.56186