Towards a systems-level understanding of aging and cancer: an interview with Dirk Bohmann

The Bohmann lab, based at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, uses Drosophila to explore the cross-talk between stress and metabolic regulation, with the goal of understanding how the signaling pathways involved can drive aging, cancer and other degenerative pathologies. In this interview, Dirk Bohmann describes his motives for moving into the fly field, explains how the study of aging can give important insights into complex disease mechanisms, and advocates using a systems-biology approach to advance drug discovery.