Projects and Grants per year
Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Astrocytes are critical modifiers of central nervous system (CNS) pathophysiology. They react to
CNS damage with a range of response broadly referred to as astrogliosis. Focal trauma to the
CNS, including spinal cord injury (SCI), results in scar-forming astrogliosis at the site of injury
that limits the spread of inflammatory cells, thereby facilitating wound healing in the sub-acute
phase of injury. Understanding how astrocytic scar formation is regulated is important to
selectively harnessing neuroprotective effects of reactive astrocytes. While we and others have
contributed to the identification of cytokine and cellular stress signaling pathways to the
regulation of astrogliosis, current understanding of metabolic control of astrogliosis is
surprisingly rudimentary, especially given that astrocytic scar formation is a high energy
demanding process. Using a genetic model that enhances scar-forming astrogliosis after SCI,
we identified astrocytic glycogen – an energy reserve of the CNS – as a candidate metabolic
regulator of astrogliosis. This project tests the hypothesis that SCI increases metabolism of
astrocytic glycogen to provide bioenergetic substrates that fuel astrocyte-mediated wound
healing. Leveraging my expertise of astrocyte biology in spinal cord repair and state-of-the-art
technology for metabolic analyses offered by CNS-Met COBRE Cores, completion of this
project is expected to advance fundamental knowledge of metabolic control of reactive
astrocytes and identify novel metabolic targets of intervention to promote neural repair.
Status | Active |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 6/1/24 → 2/28/25 |
Funding
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences
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Projects
- 1 Active
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Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in CNS Metabolism - Administrative Core
Sullivan, P. (PI), Bachstetter, A. (CoI), Bauer, B. (CoI), Dutch, R. (CoI), Hubbard, W. (CoI), Johnson, L. (CoI), Nikolajczyk, B. (CoI), Norris, C. (CoI), Patel, S. (CoI), Schmitt, F. (CoI), Selenica, M.-L. (CoI), Slevin, J. (CoI), Wilcock, D. (CoI) & Yamasaki, T. (CoI)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5/15/23 → 2/29/28
Project: Research project