Melanie McReynolds

Huck Early Career Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology


Melanie McReynolds

Research Summary

The biochemistry behind aging and its intersection with stress, with the long-term goal of identifying strategies that promote healthier aging.

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

Links

Most Recent Publications

10 degree C static storage of porcine donation after circulatory death livers improves biliary viability and mitigates ischemia-reperfusion injury

Kaitlyn M. Tracy, Yutaka Shishido, Mark Petrovic, Alexandria Murphy, Ti Oluwanimi Adesanya, Avery K. Fortier, Timothy R. Harris, Michael Cortelli, William D. Tucker, Sean A. François, Brandon Petree, Kimya Raietparvar, Victoria Simon, Carl A. Johnson, Elizabeth Simonds, John Poland, Gabriella A. Glomp, Christian Crannell, Jiancong Liang, Andrea Marshall, Antentor Hinton, Ciara M. Shaver, Caitlin T. Demarest, Rei Ukita, Ashish S. Shah, Michael Rizzari, Martin Montenovo, Muhammad Ameen Rauf, Melanie McReynolds, Matthew Bacchetta, 2025, American Journal of Transplantation on p. 1417-1431

Selection for Early Reproduction Leads to Accelerated Aging and Extensive Metabolic Remodeling in Drosophila melanogaster

David L. Hubert, Kenneth R. Arnold, Zachary S. Greenspan, Anastasia Pupo, Ryan D. Robinson, Valeria V. Chavarin, Thomas T. Barter, Danijel Djukovic, Daniel Raftery, Zer Vue, Antentor Hinton, Melanie R. McReynolds, Benjamin R. Harrison, Mark A. Phillips, 2025, Genome Biology and Evolution

Human genetics identify convergent signals in mitochondrial LACTB-mediated lipid metabolism in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome

Shen Li, Hongbo Liu, Hailong Hu, Eunji Ha, Praveena Prasad, Brenita C. Jenkins, Ujjalkumar Subhash Das, Sarmistha Mukherjee, Kyosuke Shishikura, Renming Hu, Daniel J. Rader, Liming Pei, Joseph A. Baur, Megan L. Matthews, Garret A. FitzGerald, Melanie R. McReynolds, Katalin Susztak, 2025, Cell Metabolism on p. 154-168.e7

Quantitative assessment of morphological changes in lipid droplets and lipid–mito interactions with aging in brown adipose

Amber Crabtree, Kit Neikirk, Julia A. Pinette, Aaron Whiteside, Bryanna Shao, Jessica Bedenbaugh, Zer Vue, Larry Vang, Han Le, Mert Demirci, Taseer Ahmad, Trinity Celeste Owens, Ashton Oliver, Faben Zeleke, Heather K. Beasley, Edgar Garza Lopez, Estevão Scudese, Taylor Rodman, Kinuthia Kabugi, Alice Koh, Suzanne Navarro, Jacob Lam, Ben Kirk, Margaret Mungai, Mariya Sweetwyne, Ho Jin Koh, Elma Zaganjor, Steven M. Damo, Jennifer A. Gaddy, Annet Kirabo, Sandra A. Murray, Anthonya Cooper, Clintoria Williams, Melanie R. McReynolds, Andrea G. Marshall, Antentor Hinton, 2024, Journal of Cellular Physiology

Restoring hippocampal glucose metabolism rescues cognition across Alzheimer’s disease pathologies

Paras S. Minhas, Jeffrey R. Jones, Amira Latif-Hernandez, Yuki Sugiura, Aarooran S. Durairaj, Qian Wang, Siddhita D. Mhatre, Takeshi Uenaka, Joshua Crapser, Travis Conley, Hannah Ennerfelt, Yoo Jin Jung, Ling Liu, Praveena Prasad, Brenita C. Jenkins, Yeonglong Albert Ay, Matthew Matrongolo, Ryan Goodman, Traci Newmeyer, Kelly Heard, Austin Kang, Edward N. Wilson, Tao Yang, Erik M. Ullian, Geidy E. Serrano, Thomas G. Beach, Marius Wernig, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Makoto Suematsu, Frank M. Longo, Melanie R. McReynolds, Fred H. Gage, Katrin I. Andreasson, 2024, Science on p. eabm6131

Ablation of Sam50 is associated with fragmentation and alterations in metabolism in murine and human myotubes

Bryanna Shao, Mason Killion, Ashton Oliver, Chia Vang, Faben Zeleke, Kit Neikirk, Zer Vue, Edgar Garza-Lopez, Jian qiang Shao, Margaret Mungai, Jacob Lam, Qiana Williams, Christopher T. Altamura, Aaron Whiteside, Kinuthia Kabugi, Jessica McKenzie, Maria Ezedimma, Han Le, Alice Koh, Estevão Scudese, Larry Vang, Andrea G. Marshall, Amber Crabtree, Janelle I. Tanghal, Dominique Stephens, Ho Jin Koh, Brenita C. Jenkins, Sandra A. Murray, Anthonya T. Cooper, Clintoria Williams, Steven M. Damo, Melanie R. McReynolds, Jennifer A. Gaddy, Celestine N. Wanjalla, Heather K. Beasley, Antentor Hinton, 2024, Journal of Cellular Physiology

The graduate school guide: How to prepare for the qualifying exam and assemble a thesis/graduate committee

Crystal D. Rogers, Annet Kirabo, Melanie McReynolds, Mariya T. Sweetwyne, Celestine Wanjalla, Jazmine Benjamin, Edith M. Williams, Jennifer A. Gaddy, Clintoria R. Williams, Steven M. Damo, Sandra A. Murray, Antentor Hinton, 2024, Journal of Cellular Physiology

Running a successful STEMM summer program: A week-by-week guide

Heather K. Beasley, Zer Vue, Melanie R. McReynolds, Edgar Garza-Lopez, Kit Neikirk, Margaret Mungai, Andrea G. Marshall, Bryanna Shao, Jazmine I. Benjamin, Celestine N. Wanjalla, Clintoria R. Williams, Sandra A. Murray, Valerie K. Jordan, Haysetta D. Shuler, Annet Kirabo, Antentor Hinton, 2024, Journal of Cellular Physiology

A review of undergraduate research programs aimed at underrepresented students

Heather K. Beasley, Zer Vue, Melanie R. McReynolds, Kit Neikirk, Edgar Garza-Lopez, Margaret Mungai, Andrea G. Marshall, Bryanna Shao, Jazmine Benjamin, Celestine N. Wanjalla, Clintoria R. Williams, Sandra A. Murray, Haysetta D. Shuler, Annet Kirabo, Antentor Hinton, 2024, STAR Protocols

TREM1 disrupts myeloid bioenergetics and cognitive function in aging and Alzheimer disease mouse models

Edward N. Wilson, Congcong Wang, Michelle S. Swarovski, Kristy A. Zera, Hannah E. Ennerfelt, Qian Wang, Aisling Chaney, Esha Gauba, Javier A. Ramos Benitez, Yann Le Guen, Paras S. Minhas, Maharshi Panchal, Yuting J. Tan, Eran Blacher, Chinyere A. Iweka, Haley Cropper, Poorva Jain, Qingkun Liu, Swapnil S. Mehta, Abigail J. Zuckerman, Matthew Xin, Jacob Umans, Jolie Huang, Aarooran S. Durairaj, Geidy E. Serrano, Thomas G. Beach, Michael D. Greicius, Michelle L. James, Marion S. Buckwalter, Melanie R. McReynolds, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Katrin I. Andreasson, 2024, Nature Neuroscience on p. 873-885

Most-Cited Papers

Restoring metabolism of myeloid cells reverses cognitive decline in ageing

Paras S. Minhas, Amira Latif-Hernandez, Melanie R. McReynolds, Aarooran S. Durairaj, Qian Wang, Amanda Rubin, Amit U. Joshi, Joy Q. He, Esha Gauba, Ling Liu, Congcong Wang, Miles Linde, Yuki Sugiura, Peter K. Moon, Ravi Majeti, Makoto Suematsu, Daria Mochly-Rosen, Irving L. Weissman, Frank M. Longo, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Katrin I. Andreasson, 2021, Nature on p. 122-128

CD38 ecto-enzyme in immune cells is induced during aging and regulates NAD<sup>+</sup> and NMN levels

Claudia C.S. Chini, Thais R. Peclat, Gina M. Warner, Sonu Kashyap, Jair Machado Espindola-Netto, Guilherme C. de Oliveira, Lilian S. Gomez, Kelly A. Hogan, Mariana G. Tarragó, Amrutesh S. Puranik, Guillermo Agorrody, Katie L. Thompson, Kevin Dang, Starlynn Clarke, Bennett G. Childs, Karina S. Kanamori, Micaela A. Witte, Paola Vidal, Anna L. Kirkland, Marco De Cecco, Karthikeyani Chellappa, Melanie R. McReynolds, Connor Jankowski, Tamara Tchkonia, James L. Kirkland, John M. Sedivy, Jan M. van Deursen, Darren J. Baker, Wim van Schooten, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Joseph A. Baur, Eduardo N. Chini, 2020, Nature Metabolism on p. 1284-1304

SLC25A51 is a mammalian mitochondrial NAD<sup>+</sup> transporter

Timothy S. Luongo, Jared M. Eller, Mu Jie Lu, Marc Niere, Fabio Raith, Caroline Perry, Marc R. Bornstein, Paul Oliphint, Lin Wang, Melanie R. McReynolds, Marie E. Migaud, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, F. Brad Johnson, Kai Johnsson, Mathias Ziegler, Xiaolu A. Cambronne, Joseph A. Baur, 2020, Nature on p. 174-179

Metabolite discovery through global annotation of untargeted metabolomics data

Li Chen, Wenyun Lu, Lin Wang, Xi Xing, Ziyang Chen, Xin Teng, Xianfeng Zeng, Antonio D. Muscarella, Yihui Shen, Alexis Cowan, Melanie R. McReynolds, Brandon J. Kennedy, Ashley M. Lato, Shawn R. Campagna, Mona Singh, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, 2021, Nature Methods on p. 1377-1385

Serine Catabolism Feeds NADH when Respiration Is Impaired

Lifeng Yang, Juan Carlos Garcia Canaveras, Zihong Chen, Lin Wang, Lingfan Liang, Cholsoon Jang, Johannes A. Mayr, Zhaoyue Zhang, Jonathan M. Ghergurovich, Le Zhan, Shilpy Joshi, Zhixian Hu, Melanie R. McReynolds, Xiaoyang Su, Eileen White, Raphael J. Morscher, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, 2020, Cell Metabolism on p. 809-821.e6

Acoustofluidic Rotational Manipulation of Cells and Organisms Using Oscillating Solid Structures

Adem Ozcelik, Nitesh Nama, Po-Hsun Huang, Murat Kaynak, Melanie McReynolds, Wendy Hanna-Rose, Tony Huang, 2016, Small on p. 5120-5125

Age-related NAD<sup>+</sup> decline

Melanie R. McReynolds, Karthikeyani Chellappa, Joseph A. Baur, 2020, Experimental Gerontology

Spatially resolved isotope tracing reveals tissue metabolic activity

Lin Wang, Xi Xing, Xianfeng Zeng, S. Ra Elle Jackson, Tara TeSlaa, Osama Al-Dalahmah, Laith Z. Samarah, Katharine Goodwin, Lifeng Yang, Melanie R. McReynolds, Xiaoxuan Li, Jeremy J. Wolff, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Shawn M. Davidson, 2022, Nature Methods on p. 223-230

Cell size is a determinant of stem cell potential during aging

Jette Lengefeld, Chia Wei Cheng, Pema Maretich, Marguerite Blair, Hannah Hagen, Melanie R. McReynolds, Emily Sullivan, Kyra Majors, Christina Roberts, Joon Ho Kang, Joachim D. Steiner, Teemu P. Miettinen, Scott R. Manalis, Adam Antebi, Sean J. Morrison, Jacqueline A. Lees, Laurie A. Boyer, Ömer H. Yilmaz, Angelika Amon, 2021, Science advances

NAD<sup>+</sup> flux is maintained in aged mice despite lower tissue concentrations

Melanie R. McReynolds, Karthikeyani Chellappa, Eric Chiles, Connor Jankowski, Yihui Shen, Li Chen, Hélène C. Descamps, Sarmistha Mukherjee, Yashaswini R. Bhat, Siddharth R. Lingala, Qingwei Chu, Paul Botolin, Faisal Hayat, Tomohito Doke, Katalin Susztak, Christoph A. Thaiss, Wenyun Lu, Marie E. Migaud, Xiaoyang Su, Joshua D. Rabinowitz, Joseph A. Baur, 2021, Cell Systems on p. 1160-1172.e4

News Articles Featuring Melanie McReynolds

Jan 08, 2026

Feature Fueling healthier aging, connecting metabolism stress and time

Melanie McReynolds first began asking questions about aging at home, not in the lab. Her parents had her later in life, and she grew up watching them age. Watching her parents grow older sparked her lifelong fascination with how our bodies change over time and what it means to age well.

Full Article

Sep 12, 2024

Penn State professor part of team finding potential new way to treat Alzheimer's

A team of scientists, including researchers from Penn State, have found that a drug being developed for cancer treatment could also lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

Full Article

Aug 23, 2024

What links aging and disease? A growing body of research says it’s a faulty metabolism

Aging is a biological process that no one can avoid. Ideally, growing old should be a time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Aging also has a darker side, however, often linked to disease.

Full Article

Aug 22, 2024

Cancer drug could treat early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, study shows

A type of drug developed for treating cancer holds promise as a new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to a recent study by researchers at Penn State, Stanford University and an international team of collaborators.

Full Article

Sep 15, 2023

Seed grants fund research collaborations with minority-serving institutions

The first awardees of Penn State’s new Inter-Institutional Partnerships for Diversifying Research (IDPR) initiative have been selected, comprising a total of 16 collaborative projects that connect Penn State researchers with colleagues from minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Full Article