Dr. Margaret Baumann's selection for career initiation support by the GRTC will create a development new, potentially career establishing knowledge, on """"""""Intracellular mechanisms of contractility in the bladder"""""""". Dr. Baumann is a graduate of Creighton University and the two year Physician Fellowship Training Program in the Division on Aging; and has been fully recognized for her commitment to a career in Gerontology since receiving the Henderson Memorial Student Award from the American Geriatrics Society in 1982. She has developed, with Dr. Neil Resnick, a strong interest in the cellular aspects of bladder dysfunction, a necessary and heretofore essentially neglected area of study, of high relevance to the aging population. Support for the proposed work will provide preliminary data upon which Dr. Baumann will base her primary research support for her academic career. Dr. Baumann will extend her growing interaction with Dr. Neil Resnick, Chief of Geriatrics at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, whose research in urinary incontinence in the elderly spans epidemiologic through basis studies. The proposed studies, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Morgan, a smooth muscle biologist, will explore the hypotheses that (1) bladder contraction depends on two independent biochemical pathways: one involving myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), and protein kinase C (PK-C); 2 that the MLCK pathway is Ca2+ dependent while the PK-C is Ca2+ independent; and 3) that detrusor dysfunction will be reflected in abnormalities of one or both pathways. These studies employing porcine bladder muscle being used in concurrent studies in Dr. Resnick's laboratory will be supervised by Dr. Resnick and Dr. Morgan who have established themselves as leaders in their respective areas of urinary incontinence and muscle biochemistry and are collaborating successfully in the mutually productive area of bladder muscle physiology which has direct relevance to major, morbid syndromes affecting the elderly population. Dr. Baumann, as their first jointly supervised fellow has a special opportunity to develop important new information leading to an independent career. As the muscle cells employed for these studies will be taken from bladders being studied urodynamically, the opportunity for translating basic observations to physiologic function in this model of human bladder is compelling. The proposed studies will require assistance from the Biostatistics, Bioengineering and Evaluation Cores of the proposed GRTC.
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