Research Initiative Award: Deciphering the Molecular Mechanisms Preceding the Aging Skeletal Muscle Phenotype

研究启动奖为历史上黑人学院和大学的初级和中级职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新定向和重建现有项目。预计该奖项将有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善家庭机构的研究和教学，并使本科生参与研究经验。授予鲍伊州立大学的奖项旨在研究成年人的时间点，以努力破译衰老过程的生物机制。该项目将提高该机构的研究能力，并为代表性不足的少数民族学生提供研究经验。该项目的核心假设是，在衰老过程中发生的骨骼肌稳态分子机制的改变，并有助于几十年后发展的衰老表型。据推测，与年轻和老年对应物相比，成年骨骼肌在未受到挑战时以及在受到固定和损伤的挑战时将显示独特的信号传导谱和表型。为了解读激发后的特征，将对成年骨骼肌进行损伤或固定;将使用显微镜评估组织学表型，并使用蛋白质印迹法确定信号传导机制。为了解读未激发时的特征，将使用体内强度试验、显微镜检查、蛋白质印迹和RNAseq对2至12个月龄的各种年龄的小鼠进行表征。本研究将提供老化过程中发生的分子、组织学和功能变化的表征。此外，它旨在支持这样一种观点，即衰老是一个持续的发展过程，而不是一个终点表型，因此，中间时间点是非常翔实的，应包括在与年龄相关的研究中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Bowie State University seeks to investigate the adult time-point in efforts of deciphering the biological mechanisms of the aging process. This project will increase the research capacity of the institution and provide research experiences for underrepresented minority students. This project is centered around the hypothesis that alterations in molecular mechanisms governing the homeostasis of skeletal muscle occur during the aging process and contribute to the aging phenotype that develops decades later. It is hypothesized that adult skeletal muscle will display a unique signaling profile and phenotype when unchallenged and when challenged with immobilization and injury, as compared to young and aged counterparts. To decipher the profile upon challenge, the adult skeletal muscle will be subjected to an injury or immobilization; microscopy will be utilized to assess the histological phenotype and Western blots will be employed to determine the signaling mechanisms. To decipher the profile when unchallenged, mice of various ages ranging from 2- to 12- months will be characterized using in vivo strength tests, microscopy, Western blots and RNAseq. This study will provide a characterization of molecular, histological and functional changes that occur during the aging process. Additionally, it seeks to support the notion that aging is an ongoing developmental process as opposed to an endpoint phenotype and therefore, intermediate timepoints are very informative and should be included in age-related studies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.