Life Sciences Commons^™

A Neuromuscular Look Into Genetics Of Muscle Aging, Christina Talley

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

As individuals age throughout their life, they experience muscle tissue loss that impacts their quality of life such as a decrease in their physical capabilities and sometimes even their mental capacity. The process of muscle aging is the key point of this study. This involves the individual’s muscles and the motor neurons that control them. Skeletal muscles are used daily to maintain posture, stand, walk, etc. Throughout a lifetime these muscles undergo damage and need to be repaired. When the muscles are repaired, they express physical changes. The tissue shrinks in size and eventually the composition of the tissue is …

Drosophila Model To Study Muscle Atrophy, Aaron Aghai

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Muscle atrophy (MA) is a phenomenon of muscle mass loss due to accelerated protein degradation in muscle fibers. Some pathological conditions, such as chronic inflammation or cancer, induce accelerated MA, which complicates medical treatment, hampers recovery of fragile patients, and ultimately can be the cause of a patient’s death. To gain better control over MA, more information is required about the whole spectrum of genetic factors that can influence MA.

Drosophila provides an excellent platform for genetic screening, although it has somewhat limited utility for MA research since insect muscles lack the level of plasticity found in mammalian muscles. We …