A tremendous biodiversity evolved on Earth allows species to face the challenges in their diverse habitats. The subterranean blind mole-rat of the genus Nannospalax (hereafter, Spalax) is a remarkably long-lived, solitary, wild, obligatory fossorial rodent of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Spalax inhabits sealed underground burrows, relatively protected from extreme climatic changes, pathogens, and predators; however, it faces extreme hypoxic and hypercapnic conditions that can reach ~7% O2, and ~6%CO2 in the natural habitat, which appears to be lethal to many mammalian species. Hypoxia stimulates reactive oxygen species excessive generation that compromises genome integrity, proteostasis, and homeostasis in general. Spalax is an extremely long-living mammal relatively to its body mass (~20 years in captivity; 120-200 g); moreover, it tolerates chemical carcinogens. I am interested in studying the physiological, cellular and genetic strategies; and the evolutionary changes the fine-tuning of the molecular mechanisms that underlies longevity, resistance to environmental stress and cancer.

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Specific research interests: 

1. Oxidative and genotoxic stress response, DNA repair capacity, and homeostasis in Spalax cells and tissues challenged by hypoxic stress.

2. Longevity-related epigenetic changes, transposable elements activity, and gene transcription regulation.

3. Evolutionary molecular changes that determine cell-to-cell transmission of senescence, inflammatory signaling, migration and differentiation patterns in Spalax as requisites for stress and cancer resistance.