OLDER + STRONGER LONGER Dr. Robert Fitts, professor of biological sciences in the Klingler College of Arts
“We need the damaged spinal nerves to grow — and cancer, at its core, is unregulated cellular growth.”
and Sciences, spent most of his professional life studying how human muscles atrophy in outer space zero gravity. Working with NASA and international space organizations, Fitts helped combat the muscle wasting that was the astronaut’s occupational hazard. Now he has turned to a new question: Why do people fatigue so easily when they get older, and what can be done to prevent that? It’s a question colleague Dr. Sandra Hunter, professor of exercise science in the College of Health Sciences, has been considering as well. As an exercise scientist Hunter has worked with athletes, clinical populations and the general population while paying special attention to the exercise needs of elderly men and women.
hasn’t been done. In our lab we can start with a list of genes that have been studied by cancer researchers but haven’t been studied in the nervous system.”
This systematic analysis will
let Blackmore discover new genes that could be important for axonal growth and repair. “There have already been enormous investments made in the study of cancer genes,” he says. “I believe it’s important to look at the knowledge base that’s already been we can.” m JL
4 Dr. Marieke Gilmartin, assistant professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences, awarded $800,000 NSF grant in support of research on how brain areas interact on a second-by-second basis to create and retain memory.
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Why do people fatigue so easily when they get older and what can be done to prevent it?
built and then apply it where
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Fitts and Hunter are principal investigators on a five-year project to explore if systematically encouraging older people to exercise — and, more important, to exercise in ways different from those of young people — can help them stay stronger longer. Funded by a $2.8 million NIH grant, the project will combine the everyday with the cutting edge. Two groups of people in their 70s and 80s will perform two types of strength training. The cutting-edge part will involve the use of high-tech tools to examine the muscle cells and nervous systems of both groups to learn what difference the workouts make. Fitts and Hunter think it is the muscles — learning how to match exercise routines to the changes in muscle physiology that come with age — that hold the key. m
Dr. Robert J. Griffin, professor, named Diederich College of Communication 2016 Scholar of the Year for ongoing research developing a model of how people use information to develop judgments and behaviors related to health and environmental risks.
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Dr. Joan Whipp, associate professor and director of teacher education in the College of Education, received a Spencer Research Grant of $49,924 to co-direct a research project on long-term retention of teachers of color, with Dr. Felicia Saffold at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
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