Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2001

Mentor: Jerry Shay

Department: Cell Biology

Room number: K2.206

Mail Code: 9039

Phone number: 214-648-3282

E-mail: jerry.shay@utsouthwestern.edu

Project title: Wound healing in human skin equivalents

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): APN 0110-00-02-1

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Brief Description of Project:

There is a lack of definitive data on the contribution of replicative aging to normal skin aging and skin pathologies. Techniques and model systems need to be developed to get information on when and under what conditions replicative aging contributes to real physiology. The immediate focus of this project is to develop telomerase-based approaches for more serious skin-related pathologies. Two conditions in which there is good evidence for the involvement of cellular aging in the skin are reduced wound healing and chronic ulcers. We will examine how aged cells contribute to poor healing in the elderly and how chronic, non-healing wounds are generated. Furthermore, we will address the ability of telomerase activation in aged cells to reverse many of the characteristics that contribute to such pathologies, thereby leading to potential therapeutic treatments or prevention. We can make human skin equivalents in cell culture and xenotransplant these on the backs immunosuppressed animals. These skin equivalents can be wounded and we will be studying the repair of these wounds. The techniques used will involve cell culture, tissue processing and sectioning, microscopy, and some animal work.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

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