A Ribocentric View of Muscle Proteostasis in Health and Disease: Novel Mechanisms Potential Therapeutic Opportunities

About this Seminar

Loss of skeletal muscle mass is associated with functional impairments, disability and increased mortality. Treatments to prevent muscle loss are an urgent unmet clinical need.  Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that regulate muscle mass will provide potential clinical targets to improve quality of life and survival of aged individuals, and those suffering from a wide variety of chronic disorders. In this seminar, Dr. Nader will present mechanistic evidence demonstrating that muscle anabolism is determined by the ability of the muscle to synthesize ribosomes. He will focus the discussion on the regulation of ribosomal DNA transcription by RNA Polymerase I and will provide evidence for a role of the mechanistic target of Rapamycin (mTOR) in both transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of rDNA genes. Dr. Nader will also discuss how alterations in proteostasis negatively impact rDNA transcription and muscle mass.

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and co-sponsored by the institute's Center for Exercise Medicine Research. The Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series, which runs annually from September to May, has featured leading biomedical researchers from throughout the country since the program began in 2012. The lectures are also open to all members of the Virginia Tech community including graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff, as well as the public.

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