christopher-elmore@uiowa.edu
Mentor: Christopher Adams, M.D./Ph.D.
Lab Room: 540 EMRB
Lab Phone: 319-353-5786

Evaluating potential interventions for skeletal muscle atrophy

Skeletal muscle atrophy is the focus of the Adams lab. This debilitating condition can result from illness or aging, but its mechanism and treatment are poorly understood. Our lab determined expression signatures of mRNAs collected from human and mouse muscle during fasting or spinal cord injury. These signatures were examined using Connectivity Mapping and several compounds were identified with opposing signatures to atrophy, suggesting a possible therapeutic intervention. Currently I am investigating the efficacy of these compounds in prevention of skeletal muscle atrophy as well as other diseases like obesity and diabetes.

Publications:

Kunkel SD, Elmore CJ, Bongers KS, Ebert SM, Fox DK, Dyle MC, Bullard SA, Adams CM. Ursolic acid increases skeletal muscle and brown fat and decreases diet-induced obesity, glucose intolerance and fatty liver disease. PLoS One. 2012;7(6):e39332. Epub 2012 Jun 20. PubMed PMID: 22745735; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3379974.

Abstracts:

Touchberry CD, Elmore CJ, Nguyen TM, Andresen JJ, Zhao X, Orange M, Weisleder N, Brotto M, Claycomb WC, Wacker MJ. The HL-1 cardiomyocyte cell line exhibits store-operated calcium entry. Experimental Biology, Washington, DC, 2011.

Wacker M, Elmore C, Touchberry C, Brotto L, Silswal N, Parelkar N, Zhao H, Hall T, Andresen J, Feng J, Brotto M, Bonewald M. Dentin Matrix Protein 1 null mice, a model of human Autosomal Recessive Hypophosphatemic Rickets, exhibit decreases in cardiac and skeletal muscle function, but not smooth muscle. The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, 2010.