Postdoctoral Fellow, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowships in Aging Research - 2022
What inspired you to pursue aging research?
I am fascinated with the poly-therapeutic effects of exercise and how improvements in skeletal muscle mass and function reduces all causes of morbidity and mortality with age. Therefore, I want to understand how aging reduces the ability of skeletal muscle to respond to positive stimuli such as exercise to improve age-related health outcomes and extend the healthspan.
In your view, what does AFAR mean to the field, and what does it mean for you to receive an AFAR grant now?
AFAR allows aging and geroscience researchers to advance the field through cutting-edge biomedical research, improving the lives of the aging population. To receive an AFAR Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Award means that I am able to pursue my ultimate career goal of becoming an independent, primary investigator and contribute to the geroscience field.
What is exciting about your research’s potential impact?
Aging individuals are at risk for loss of independence because of declining muscle mass and function. This project is the necessary first step to identify changes that focus on factors outside the muscle to improve skeletal muscle’s response to exercise, thus maintaining health with age.
How would you describe your research to a non-scientist?
Skeletal muscle mass and function begin to decline at the age of 50. To meet the healthcare needs of aging population, effective therapies to maintain healthy skeletal muscle mass and function are necessary. Manipulating the circulating environment (i.e., blood and/or plasma) is a simple, accessible, and cost-effective approach that may improve skeletal muscle function in response to muscle wasting. Thus, our project aims to determine if changing the systemic environment impacts that ability of skeletal muscle to adapt to positive stresses, such as aerobic exercise. This study will be the first to explore the relationship between the factors in the blood and aged skeletal muscle’s adaptability to respond to exercise. Furthermore, this project will advance our scientific knowledge of the underlying mechanisms that reduce skeletal muscle function with age and provide a framework for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of muscle wasting.
