Jacqueline Lo

Jacqueline Lo is a neuroscientist and geroscientist. She earned her PhD at USC, where she studied cellular stress pathways and other genetic pathways that influence the biology of aging. As a graduate student, she used genetic tools in C. elegans and biochemical techniques in human cell cultures to explore how different genes and pathways affect health-span and lifespan. As a post-doctoral researcher, she combined her previous expertise with neuroscience training to investigate how the brain regulates organismal aging.

Her research focuses on how the brain uses a a diverse class of molecules called neuropeptides to communicate with the rest of the body, and how disruptions in this delicate coordination and homeostasis contribute to systemic aging and age-related diseases. In this work, she discovered that manipulating neuropeptide signaling involved in reproductive biology can alter both health-span and lifespan. Dr. Lo is passionate about training young scientists and introducing students to research. Her teaching experience includes mentoring undergraduate students, particularly in laboratory work and research.

• Neurobiology
• Geroscience
• Molecular biology

• Neuropeptide signaling
• Biology of aging
• Reproductive biology

• University of Southern California, PhD in Molecular Biology, 2016
• UC Berkeley, BA in Molecular and Cell Biology, 2010

• Senior Scientist, Buck Institute for Research on Aging (2022-2025)
• Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Buck Institute for Research on Aging (2016-2021)

• NIH/NIA Basic Aging Research & Age-related Disease T32 Training Grant, 2020-2022
• Glenn Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship, 2016-2019
• NIH Cellular, Biochemical and Molecular Sciences T32 Training Grant, 2012-2014

• Sheeler, C. A., Lo, J. Y. et al. A FMRF-amide peptide that regulates cell non-autonomous protein homeostasis in C. elegans. bioRxiv 2025.03.14.643343 (2025). 
• Lo, J. Y., Adam, K. M. & Garrison, J. L. Neuropeptide inactivation regulates egg-laying behavior to influence reproductive health in Caenorhabditis elegans. Curr. Biol. 0, (2024). 
• Spatola, B. N., Lo, J. Y., Wang, B. & Curran, S. P. Nuclear and cytoplasmic WDR-23 isoforms mediate differential effects on GEN-1 and SKN-1 substrates. Sci. Rep. 9, 11783 (2019). 
• Lo, J. Y., Spatola, B. N. & Curran, S. P. WDR23 regulates NRF2 independently of KEAP1. PLoS Genet. 13, e1006762 (2017). 
• Pang, S., Lynn, D. A., Lo, J. Y., Paek, J. & Curran, S. P. SKN-1 and Nrf2 couples proline catabolism with lipid metabolism during nutrient deprivation. Nat. Commun. 5, 5048 (2014).