Novel metabolic adaptations to extreme oxygen deprivation
Navn på bevillingshaver
Amanda Bundgård
Titel
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution
University Hospital Cologne
Beløb
DKK 1,409,541
År
2023
Bevillingstype
Reintegration Fellowships
Hvad?
Naked mole-rats (NMRs) are mouse-sized, extremely long-lived mammals adapted to a life in poorly oxygenated (hypoxic) burrows, and do not suffer from age-related diseases like neurodegeneration, cancer and heart ischemia. In this project, I will investigate how NMR heart metabolism is adapted to hypoxia, and how this protects from heart damage.
Hvorfor?
This project will give a better understanding of how NMR metabolism is shaped to their extreme living environment. This will give a better understanding of how cellular biochemistry of mammals can be adapted to help animals survive without oxygen, and will give clues to how naked mole-rats can live very long and still avoid age-related diseases.
Hvordan?
To detect changes in metabolism, I will use a combination of cellular preparations, isolated hearts and whole animals exposed to oxygen deprivation. I can then dissect out which metabolic pathways are affected with mass spectrometric metabolomics and proteomics, and detect functional differences in heart activity to pinpoint what makes NMRs biochemically unique.