Maria Deluca

Maria Deluca
Associate Professor

Scientist (C), Integrative Center for Aging Research , School of Medicine 2003 -
Associate Professor (P), Nutrition Sciences , School of Health Professions 2008 -
Scientist (C), Center for Cardiovascular Biology (Retired Org) , Medicine - Cardiovascular Disease 2010 -
Scientist (C), Comprehensive Diabetes Center , School of Medicine 2011 -
Scientist (C), Nutrition Obesity Res Center (NORC) , Nutrition Sciences Research 2011 -

Overview

Dr. Maria De Luca obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Calabria (Italy) working on the study of human genetic variation using high variable DNA markers. During that time she was awarded a European Union Mobility Program fellowship to work in the laboratory of Dr. Julia Bodmer at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. The goal of the project was to develop a DNA method to discriminate among HLA alleles and apply it to the study of the genetic history of European populations. Dr. De Luca continued her academic training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Italian National Center on Aging working on the identification of genes involved in human longevity by a population genetic approach. She later joined the laboratory of Dr. Trudy Mackay at North Carolina State University where she expanded her research experience in the genetics and analysis of quantitative traits using D. melanogaster as model organism. Dr. De Luca joined UAB in November 2002 initially as a research-track fellow in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and has held her current position in the Department of Nutrition Sciences since July 2005.

Selected Publications

Academic Article

Year	Title	Altmetric
2020	Small extracellular vesicles deliver miR-21 and miR-217 as pro-senescence effectors to endothelial cells. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. 9. 2020
2019	Erythropoietin (EPO) haplotype associated with all-cause mortality in a cohort of Italian patients with Type-2 Diabetes. Scientific Reports. 9. 2019
2019	Genetic deletion of syndecan-4 alters body composition, metabolic phenotypes, and the function of metabolic tissues in female mice fed a high-fat diet (Running title: Sdc4 deficiency affects metabolic phenotypes). Nutrients. 11. 2019
2019	Circulating miR-146a in healthy aging and type 2 diabetes: Age- and gender-specific trajectories. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 180:1-10. 2019
2019	Diagnostic performance of new and classic CSF biomarkers in age-related dementias. Aging. 11:2420-2429. 2019
2019	The role of the cell-matrix interface in aging and its interaction with the renin-angiotensin system in the aged vasculature. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 177:66-73. 2019
2018	Age-and genotype-specific effects of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor lisinopril on mitochondrial and metabolic parameters in drosophila melanogaster. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 19. 2018
2018	Genes associated with Type 2 Diabetes and vascular complications. Aging. 10:178-196. 2018
2017	Reduction of Syndecan Transcript Levels in the Insulin-Producing Cells Affects Glucose Homeostasis in Adult Drosophila melanogaster 2017
2016	Knockdown expression of Syndecan in the fat body impacts nutrient metabolism and the organismal response to environmental stresses in Drosophila melanogaster. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 477:103-108. 2016
2016	Association of the Laminin, Alpha 5 (LAMA5) rs4925386 with height and longevity in an elderly population from Southern Italy. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 155:55-59. 2016
2015	Calcineurin Links Mitochondrial Elongation with Energy Metabolism. Cell Metabolism. 22:838-850. 2015
2015	Metabolism and successful aging: Polymorphic variation of syndecan-4 (SDC4) gene associate with longevity and lipid profile in healthy elderly Italian subjects. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. 150:27-33. 2015
2014	Aging and longevity between genetic background and lifestyle intervention. BioMed Research International. 2014. 2014
2014	Increased production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and reduced adult life span in an insecticide-resistant strain of Anopheles gambiae 2014
2013	Defense traits of larval drosophila melanogaster exhibit genetically based trade-offs against different species of parasitoids. Evolution. 67:749-760. 2013
2012	Common variants in the LAMA5 gene associate with fasting plasma glucose and serum triglyceride levels in a cohort of pre- and early pubertal children.. Journal of Pediatric Genetics. 1:229-234. 2012
2012	Nuclear genomic control of naturally occurring variation in mitochondrial function in Drosophila melanogaster. BMC Genomics. 13. 2012
2012	Common variants in the LAMA5 gene associate with fasting plasma glucose and serum triglyceride levels in a cohort of pre-and early pubertal children. Journal of Pediatric Genetics. 1:229-234. 2012
2011	Association of a common LAMA5 variant with anthropometric and metabolic traits in an Italian cohort of healthy elderly subjects. Experimental Gerontology. 46:60-64. 2011
2010	Age- and diet-specific effects of variation at S6 Kinase on life history, metabolic, and immune response traits in drosophila melanogaster 2010
2010	A conserved role for syndecan family members in the regulation of whole-body energy metabolism. PLoS ONE. 5. 2010
2010	Systems genetics analysis of body weight and energy metabolism traits in Drosophila melanogaster. BMC Genomics. 11. 2010
2008	Genetic variation in a member of the laminin gene family affects variation in body composition in Drosophila and humans. BMC Genetics. 9. 2008
2007	Mapping genetic polymorphisms affecting natural variation in Drosophila longevity. Methods in Molecular Biology. 371:307-320. 2007
2007	Methods for nutrigenomics and longevity studies in Drosophila effects of diets high in sucrose, palmitic acid, soy, or beef. Methods in Molecular Biology. 371:111-141. 2007
2007	Mapping genetic polymorphisms affecting natural variation in Drosophila longevity.. Methods in Molecular Biology. 371:307-320. 2007
2007	Methods for nutrigenomics and longevity studies in Drosophila: effects of diets high in sucrose, palmitic acid, soy, or beef.. Methods in Molecular Biology. 371:111-141. 2007
2006	Polymorphism in the transcription factor 7-Like 2 (TCF7L2) gene is associated with reduced insulin secretion in nondiabetic women. Diabetes. 55:3630-3634. 2006
2006	Putative contributors to the secular increase in obesity: Exploring the roads less traveled. International Journal of Obesity. 30:1585-1594. 2006
2006	Phenotypic Variation and Natural Selection at Catsup, a Pleiotropic Quantitative Trait Gene in Drosophila. Current Biology. 16:912-919. 2006
2005	Drosophila nutrigenomics can provide clues to human gene-nutrient interactions. Annual Review of Nutrition. 25:499-522. 2005
2005	Drosophila nutrigenomics can provide clues to human gene-nutrient interactions. Annual Review of Nutrition. 25:499-522. 2005
2005	Mapping quantitative trait loci affecting variation in drosophila triacylglycerol storage 2005
2003	Dopa decarboxylase (Ddc) affects variation in Drosophila longevity. Nature Genetics. 34:429-433. 2003
2002	Sex-specific longevity associations defined by tyrosine hydroxylase-insulin-insulin growth factor 2 haplotypes on the 11p15.5 chromosomal region (vol 36, pg 1663, 2001). Experimental Gerontology. 37:607-608. 2002
2002	Centenarians in good health conditions. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. 35:209-217. 2002
2001	Sex-specific longevity associations defined by Tyrosine Hydroxylase-Insulin-Insulin Growth Factor 2 haplotypes on the 11p15.5 chromosomal region. Experimental Gerontology. 36:1663-1671. 2001
2001	Measuring the genetic influence in modulating the human life span: Gene-environment interaction and the sex-specific genetic effect. Biogerontology. 2:141-153. 2001
2001	HLA class I in three West African ethnic groups: Genetic distances from sub-Saharan and Caucasoid populations 2001
2001	Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups and APOE4 allele are non-independent variables in sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Human Genetics. 108:194-198. 2001
2000	Genes and longevity: Lessons from studies of centenarians 2000
2000	Inflamm-aging. An evolutionary perspective on immunosenescence. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 908:244-254. 2000
1999	Genes, demography, and life span: The contribution of demographic data in genetic studies on aging and longevity. American Journal of Human Genetics. 65:1178-1193. 1999
1999	Mitochondrial DNA inherited variants are associated with successful aging and longevity in humans. The FASEB Journal. 13:1532-1536. 1999
1999	p53 Codon 72 polymorphism and longevity: Additional data on centenarians from continental Italy and Sardinia [4]. American Journal of Human Genetics. 65:1782-1785. 1999
1999	p53 variants predisposing to cancer are present in healthy centenarians [2]. American Journal of Human Genetics. 64:292-294. 1999
1998	Age-related changes of the 3'APOB-VNTR genotype pool in ageing cohorts. Annals of Human Genetics. 62:115-122. 1998
1998	Age-related changes of the 3′APOB-VNTR genotype pool in ageing cohorts. Annals of Human Genetics. 62:115-122. 1998
1998	Gene/longevity association studies at four autosomal loci (REN, THO, PARP, SOD2). European Journal of Human Genetics. 6:534-541. 1998
1996	Allele frequency distributions at seven DNA hypervariable loci in a population sample from Calabria (Southern Italy). Gene geography : a computerized bulletin on human gene frequencies. 10:135-145. 1996
1996	HLA class I and II study in an Orcadian population. Human Immunology. 47:O265-O265. 1996
1996	HLA class I and class II alleles in three sympatric West African ethnic groups. Human Immunology. 47:O259-O259. 1996
1996	Identification of HLA-B44 and HLA-B45 alleles using a nested ARMS-PCR method. Human Immunology. 47:P29-P29. 1996
1995	DYS19, D12S67, and D1S80 polymorphisms in population samples from southern Italy and Greece 1995
1993	Rapid identification of VNTR alleles of the human thyroid peroxidase gene by PCR: A study in a population sample from south Italy. Genomics. 17:796-798. 1993
1993	The first genetic marker detected in the promoter region of the thyroid peroxidase gene by single‐strand conformational polymorphism analysis. Human Mutation. 2:418-419. 1993

Research Overview

Dr. De Luca’s research efforts are focused on the identification of conserved genetic pathways that regulate metabolic homeostasis and life span. The main objective of her research is to provide new models for human obesity and age-related metabolic diseases.