{"id":41764,"date":"2019-01-07T08:50:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T13:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/?p=41764"},"modified":"2019-01-07T14:50:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T19:50:08","slug":"muscular-dystrophy-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/2019\/01\/07\/muscular-dystrophy-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Muscular dystrophy research aims to understand muscle degeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using bioinformatics to analyze muscular dystrophy.<\/h3>\n
\"zebrafish\"<\/a>
Zebrafish share 70 percent of genes with humans, making them ideal to study muscular dystrophy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Benjamin King, assistant professor for bioinformatics, has teamed up with Clarissa Henry, associate professor of biological sciences, to study muscular dystrophy<\/a>, a progressive genetic disorder that affects muscles in the human body. They have developed a unique tool to study the function of a specific muscular dystrophy gene.<\/p>\n

Researchers use zebrafish embryos to study muscle development and muscular dystrophy because zebrafish share 70 percent of genes with humans. Recently, Henry\u2019s lab developed a new zebrafish model for muscular dystrophy by mutating a specific gene. Working together, their labs generate data necessary to understand why disrupting this gene leads to disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many forms of muscular dystrophy and one that we\u2019re interested in is difficult from a clinical perspective because the age of onset is hard to predict,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

Henry\u2019s lab determines how muscle structure and function is altered in the zebrafish model. The data collected in King’s lab characterizes and models differences in gene expression between normal zebrafish embryos and zebrafish embryos with the mutated gene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is that this information can be used in the future to promote muscle health in multiple contexts such as muscle aging, muscle wasting after traumatic injury, muscle wasting that occurs with cancer, and genetic muscle diseases,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

King hopes this research will add to the knowledge about why the age of onset and severity of disease varies among individuals with the disorder.<\/p>\n

King and Henry have five undergraduate and one graduate student working in their labs on this project, “Muscular Dystrophy genomics research collaborative.” The project is one of nine funded by the Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Collaborative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Undergraduate student gets experience in bioinformatics.<\/h3>\n

\"Bioinformatics<\/a><\/p>\n

Grace Smith, a third-year molecular and cellular biology and biochemistry undergraduate, is working in King’s lab to analyze the data collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really understood why two individuals affected by muscular dystrophy have completely different severity of symptoms. They can even have mutations in the same gene \u2013 there is currently no way to explain this variability,” Smith said.<\/p>\n

Working on this research has allowed Smith to develop important skills for furthering her education \u2013 which will aid in her goal of obtaining a Ph.D. She has learned how to analyze data and communicate with other researchers from different scientific disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust getting that initial exposure to research has been really valuable. It\u2019s confirmed my desire to pursue research,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Smith personally understands how severe the disorder can be and likes being able to work on research that could help people in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in bioinformatics because I know it\u2019s a tool that I can use in any type of research,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI have a family friend that has an adopted daughter with muscular dystrophy. Thinking of how my research could impact her life or the lives of future generations gives me that extra bit of motivation.”<\/p>\n

\n

Author: Kendra Caruso<\/p>\n

Media Contact: Christel Peters<\/a>, 207.581.3571<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using bioinformatics to analyze muscular dystrophy. Benjamin King, assistant professor for bioinformatics, has teamed up with Clarissa Henry, associate professor of biological sciences, to study muscular dystrophy, a progressive genetic disorder that affects muscles in the human body. They have developed a unique tool to study the function of a specific muscular dystrophy gene. Researchers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1410,"featured_media":41773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"65","_seopress_titles_title":"%%title%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"Interdisciplinary research combines zebrafish models and bioinformatics to study gene mutations \u2013 hoping to solve the mystery of muscular 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Using bioinformatics to analyze muscular dystrophy. Zebrafish share 70 percent of genes with humans, making them ideal to study muscular dystrophy. Benjamin King, assistant professor for bioinformatics, has teamed up with Clarissa Henry, associate professor of biological sciences, to study muscular dystrophy, a progressive genetic disorder that affects muscles in the human body. They have developed a unique tool to study the function of a specific muscular dystrophy gene. Researchers use zebrafish embryos to study muscle development and muscular dystrophy because zebrafish share 70 percent of genes with humans. Recently, Henry\u2019s lab developed a new zebrafish model for muscular dystrophy…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"IMPACT Newsletter<\/a>, IURC Awards<\/a>, Research News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"","url":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":94,"label":"IMPACT Newsletter"},{"value":218,"label":"IURC Awards"},{"value":65,"label":"Research News"}],"post_tag":[{"value":222,"label":"Ben King"},{"value":223,"label":"Clarissa Henry"},{"value":82,"label":"Interdisciplinary Research"},{"value":220,"label":"muscular dystrophy"},{"value":86,"label":"Undergraduate Research"},{"value":221,"label":"zebrafish"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2019\/01\/muscular-dystrophy-research-1024x800.jpg",1024,800,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":94,"name":"IMPACT Newsletter","slug":"impact-newsletter","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":94,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":112,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":94,"category_count":112,"category_description":"","cat_name":"IMPACT Newsletter","category_nicename":"impact-newsletter","category_parent":0},{"term_id":218,"name":"IURC Awards","slug":"iurc","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":218,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":218,"category_count":12,"category_description":"","cat_name":"IURC Awards","category_nicename":"iurc","category_parent":0},{"term_id":65,"name":"Research News","slug":"research-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":65,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":226,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":65,"category_count":226,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Research News","category_nicename":"research-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":222,"name":"Ben King","slug":"ben-king","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":222,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":223,"name":"Clarissa Henry","slug":"clarissa-henry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":223,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":82,"name":"Interdisciplinary Research","slug":"interdisciplinary-research","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":82,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":14,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":220,"name":"muscular dystrophy","slug":"muscular-dystrophy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":220,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":86,"name":"Undergraduate Research","slug":"undergraduate-research","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":86,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":14,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":221,"name":"zebrafish","slug":"zebrafish","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":221,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41764"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41866,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41764\/revisions\/41866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}