Thiruma Arumugam

At a glance

• Professor at the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment, La Trobe University in Melbourne; previously worked in Singapore and South Korea.
• Studies how intermittent fasting and meal timing protect the brain against ageing, stroke and dementia.
• Co-authored with Mark Mattson the widely cited review ‘Hallmarks of Brain Aging’ (Cell Metabolism, 2018), on the processes that make the brain more vulnerable with age.
• Recent animal studies show that intermittent fasting reshapes the brain’s protein profile and protects synapses, and that liver, brain and muscle each respond to fasting in their own way.
• Has also examined whether parents’ time-restricted feeding affects their offspring’s metabolism, and works on vascular dementia.
• Relevant because fasting is often promoted with big promises for the brain; his work shows which biological mechanisms may lie behind it.