Dr Mirre Simons
School of Biosciences
Sir Henry Dale Senior Fellow
m.simons@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 0111
+44 114 222 0111
B89, Alfred Denny Building
Full contact details
Dr Mirre Simons
School of Biosciences
B89
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
School of Biosciences
B89
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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- Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, Wellcome & Royal Society (2019-2025)
- Vice-Chancellor's Fellowship, Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield (2015-2019)
- Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship (2015-2019)
- Postdoctoral researcher (NERC-funded), Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield (2013-2015)
- PhD, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (cum laude, 2013)
- MSc Research, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (cum laude, 2008)
- Research interests
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Taking an evolutionary perspective I work on the adaptive value of differences in ageing between and within species to reveal fundamental aspects of the aging process. In this context I have worked on trade-offs concerning reproductive effort and sexual signalling. To increase reproductive effort, I used various experimental manipulations in three-spined stickleback.
I also studied senescence and sexual signaling of bill coloration in zebra finches. Both during my PhD at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Moreover I have conducted several meta-analyses concerning the biology of ageing and sexual signaling (see my publications list). For my postdoctoral work at the University of Sheffield (UK), Molecular Ecology, I have studied senescence and telomere biology in an insular island population of wild house sparrows.
The current focus of my lab group is on the mechanisms of ageing and modulation by diet. We study demographic ageing, molecular mechanisms of dietary restriction and age-related disease (dementia and cancer). To do this we use the fruit fly, a functional genetics powerhouse. We use a combination of transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics to identify candidate mechanisms. Please refer to our lab web pages for more information and/or contact me. There are always opportunities to collaborate or come work in my lab.
I focus on the following topics:
- Demography of mortality
- Dietary restriction
- Costs of reproduction and the evolution of ageing
- Biology of cancer and cellular senescence
- Telomere length and dynamics
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Dietary restriction extends lifespan across different temperatures in the fly. Functional Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Stochasticity explains nongenetic inheritance of lifespan and apparent trade-offs between reproduction and aging. Aging Biology, 1(1), 1-6. View this article in WRRO
- The importance of reaction norms in dietary restriction and ageing research. Ageing Research Reviews, 87, 101926-101926.
- Rapamycin not dietary restriction improves resilience against pathogens: a meta-analysis. GeroScience, 45(2), 1263-1270.
- Evidence of paternal effects on telomere length increases in early life. Frontiers in Genetics, 13.
- Amino acid availability is not essential for lifespan extension by dietary restriction in the fly.. Journals of Gerontology, Series A, 77(11), 2181-2185.
- Androgen elevation accelerates reproductive senescence in three-spined stickleback. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 9.
- The relationship between longevity and diet is genotype dependent and sensitive to desiccation in Drosophila melanogaster. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 223(23).
- Slicing : a sustainable approach to structuring samples for analysis in long‐term studies. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 11(3), 418-430.
- The hidden costs of dietary restriction: Implications for its evolutionary and mechanistic origins. Science Advances, 6(8). View this article in WRRO
- Programmed DNA elimination of germline development genes in songbirds. Nature Communications, 10(1). View this article in WRRO
- Early-life environment and differences in costs of reproduction in a preindustrial human population. PLoS One, 13(12). View this article in WRRO
- The rate of telomere loss is related to maximum lifespan in birds. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1741). View this article in WRRO
- How to catch a Smurf? - Ageing and beyond... In vivo assessment of intestinal permeability in multiple model organisms. Bio-protocol, 8(3). View this article in WRRO
- Heritability and social brood effects on personality in juvenile and adult life-history stages in a wild passerine. Journal of Evolutionary Biology , 31(1), 75-87. View this article in WRRO
- Life-span Extension With Reduced Somatotrophic Signaling: Moderation of Aging Effect by Signal Type, Sex, and Experimental Cohort. Journal of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 72(12), 1620-1626. View this article in WRRO
- Age-dependent trajectories differ between within-pair and extra-pair paternity success.. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 30(5), 951-959. View this article in WRRO
- Assortative mating for human height: A meta-analysis. American Journal of Human Biology, 29(1). View this article in WRRO
- Winter territory prospecting is associated with life-history stage but not activity in a passerine. Journal of Avian Biology. View this article in WRRO
- Response to: Reliability and validity of telomere length measurements.. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(4), 1298-1301. View this article in WRRO
- Predictably Philandering Females Prompt Poor Paternal Provisioning. The American Naturalist, 188(2), 000-000. View this article in WRRO
- Comparative idiosyncrasies in life extension by reduced mTOR signalling and its distinctiveness from dietary restriction. Aging Cell, 15(4), 737-743. View this article in WRRO
- Stabilising survival selection on pre-senescent expression of a sexual ornament followed by a terminal decline. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 29(7), 1368-1378. View this article in WRRO
- Life after logging in tropical forests of Borneo: A meta-analysis. Biological Conservation, 196, 182-188.
- Oxidative stress and life histories: unresolved issues and current needs. Ecology and Evolution, 5(24), 5745-5757.
- Questioning causal involvement of telomeres in aging. Ageing Research Reviews, 24(B), 191-196. View this article in WRRO
- Commentary: The reliability of telomere length measurements.. International Journal of Epidemiology. View this article in WRRO
- Limited catching bias in a wild population of birds with near-complete census information. Ecology and Evolution, 5(16), 3500-3506.
- An appraisal of how the vitamin A-redox hypothesis can maintain honesty of carotenoid-dependent signals. Ecology and Evolution, 5(1), 224-228.
- Carotenoid-Dependent Signals and the Evolution of Plasma Carotenoid Levels in Birds. The American Naturalist, 184(6), 741-751.
- Context-dependent effects of carotenoid supplementation on reproduction in zebra finches. Behavioral Ecology, 25(4), 945-950.
- Temporal niche switching and reduced nest attendance in response to heat dissipation limits in lactating common voles (Microtus arvalis). Physiology & Behavior, 128, 295-302.
- The biological clock modulates the human cortisol response in a multiplicative fashion. Chronobiology International, 31(4), 572-580.
- A statistical approach to distinguish telomere elongation from error in longitudinal datasets. Biogerontology, 15(1), 99-103.
- Dietary restriction of rodents decreases aging rate without affecting initial mortality rate - a meta-analysis. Aging Cell, 12(3), 410-414.
- Telomere length behaves as biomarker of somatic redundancy rather than biological age. Aging Cell, 12(2), 330-332.
- Bill Redness Is Positively Associated with Reproduction and Survival in Male and Female Zebra Finches. PLoS ONE, 7(7), e40721-e40721.
- Zebra finch females prefer males with redder bills independent of song rate—a meta-analysis. Behavioral Ecology, 22(4), 755-762.
- Ambient temperature shapes reproductive output during pregnancy and lactation in the common vole (Microtus arvalis): a test of the heat dissipation limit theory. Journal of Experimental Biology, 214(1), 38-49.
- The Evolution of the Cyanobacterial Posttranslational Clock from a Primitive “Phoscillator”. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 24(3), 175-182.
- Lego clocks: building a clock from parts. Genes & Development, 22(11), 1422-1426.
- Early‐life telomere length predicts life‐history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird. Molecular Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- What Does Carotenoid-Dependent Coloration Tell? Plasma Carotenoid Level Signals Immunocompetence and Oxidative Stress State in Birds–A Meta-Analysis. PLoS ONE, 7(8), e43088-e43088. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings papers
- Does early-life environment cause differences in costs of reproduction in a preindustrial human population?. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 156 (pp 234-235)
Preprints
- The optimal clutch size revisited: separating individual quality from the parental survival costs of reproduction, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd.
- The importance of reaction norms in dietary restriction and ageing research, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- The optimal clutch size revisited: separating individual quality from the costs of reproduction, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Vaccines provide disproportional protection to the increased hospitalisation risk posed by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV2: a meta-analysis, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Amino acid availability is not essential for lifespan extension by dietary restriction in the fly, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Dietary restriction extends lifespan across different temperatures in the fly. Functional Ecology. View this article in WRRO
- Research group
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PhD students
- Sarah Gautrey
- Alex Charles
- Katie Roome
Technicians
- Laura Hartshorne l.hartshorne@sheffield.ac.uk
- Gracie Adams g.adams@sheffield.ac.uk
- Teaching activities
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I currently teach APS359 Topics in Modern Zoology, in addition to supervising L3, L4, L4 Tutor (Org Env), MSc and MRes students.