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

研究启动奖为传统黑人学院和大学的初级和中期职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新指导和重建现有项目。期望该奖项有助于提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善所在机构的研究和教学，并使本科生参与研究经验。该奖项授予鲍伊州立大学，旨在研究成人的时间点，以破译衰老过程的生物学机制。该项目将增加该机构的研究能力，并为代表性不足的少数民族学生提供研究经验。该项目围绕着一个假设，即在衰老过程中控制骨骼肌稳态的分子机制发生改变，并导致几十年后发展的衰老表型。据推测，与年轻人和老年人相比，成人骨骼肌在未受到挑战和受到固定和损伤挑战时将显示出独特的信号谱和表型。为了在挑战时破译轮廓，成人骨骼肌将受到损伤或固定；显微镜将被用来评估组织学表型和Western blots将被用来确定信号机制。为了在不受挑战的情况下破译其特征，将使用体内强度测试、显微镜、Western blots和RNAseq对2至12个月的不同年龄的小鼠进行表征。这项研究将提供在衰老过程中发生的分子、组织学和功能变化的表征。此外，它试图支持衰老是一个持续的发育过程，而不是终点表型的概念，因此，中间时间点非常有用，应该包括在与年龄相关的研究中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.