NIH grant awarded to KU faculty

Emily A. Beck, PhD (assistant professor) was awarded a two-year, $399,766 R21 research grant from the NIH National Institute on Aging entitled “Understanding nuclear compensation to mitochondrial variation, dysfunction, and disease in a new evolutionary mutant model.” 

 This grant aims to understand how our nuclear genome – inherited from mom and dad – interacts with the small essential genome housed in our mitochondria – inherited only from mom. This work is important because successful mitochondrial and nuclear genomic interactions are essential for the maintenance of cellular processes like energy production and regulation of the cell cycle, cell death, immunity, and aging. However, when these genomic interactions are unsuccessful, any of these cellular processes can be affected leading to a wide range of disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, cancer, diabetes, MS, and many more. While these diseases are prevalent, they are difficult to study, because small amounts of genomic variation between individuals can have large effects on symptom onset and progression. We aim to overcome these challenges by studying how genomic variation in both the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes impacts this important group of diseases. 

Dr. Beck’s recruitment to KU was supported through the Research Rising initiative.