Siniša Hrvatin

Question

How do animals and their cells initiate and survive states of stasis such as hibernation? Can these states slow down tissue damage, disease progression, and aging?

Approach

To survive extreme environments, many animals have evolved the ability to profoundly decrease metabolic rate and body temperature and enter states of dormancy, such as torpor, hibernation, or cryobiosis. Our laboratory studies the mysteries of how animals and their cells initiate, regulate, and survive these adaptations. Specifically, we focus on investigating: 1) how the brain regulates metabolism and temperature during torpor (in mice) and hibernation (in hamsters), 2) how cells from various organisms adapt to function at low temperatures, 3) how organisms such as tardigrades survive being frozen, and 4) the applications of these states for slowing down tissue damage, disease progression, aging, and cryopreservation. Our long-term goal is to explore potential applications for inducing similar states of “suspended animation” in humans.

As a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, Hrvatin established an experimental paradigm for studying hibernation-like behavior in mice, and he discovered the neurons that control entry into this state. He also pioneered the Paralleled Enhancer Single Cell Assay platform, which generates cell-type-specific AAV vectors for targeted human gene therapy and for controlling defined neuronal cell types across species. 

Bio

Hrvatin earned an AB in biochemical sciences and a PhD in stem cell and regenerative medicine from Harvard University; conducted postdoctoral research at MIT, then served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and an Instructor in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School; and joined Whitehead Institute and the MIT faculty in January 2022. Hrvatin is co-founder of ReadCube, a technology company that serves millions of researchers, publishers, academic and commercial organizations by providing access to scientific literature and reference management tools.