DETROIT — A recent award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health will aid Wayne State University researchers in their exploration of the underlying biology of several diseases.

The five-year, $1.8 million grant, “Mechanisms of Mitophagy in Tissue Health and Homeostasis,” will be led by Ryan Insolera, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology, visual and anatomical sciences in the Wayne State University School of Medicine.

“The long-term goal of this study is to investigate a cellular process closely associated with disease,” said Insolera. “This grant gives our lab the foundation needed to expand our basic science research program into numerous disease mechanisms.”

The focus will be the study of a process called mitophagy, a type of mitochondrial quality control that degrades damaged mitochondria to prevent their inappropriate accumulation and represents a critical mechanism required for the maintenance of tissue health.

“Mitophagy is associated with a number of diseases,” said Insolera. “What we don’t know much about is the underlying biology when it is regularly functioning. This study will step back from disease conditions and determine the role of mitophagy in normal functioning cells. This will ultimately help us to better understand what happens when the process goes wrong.”

The study will aid Insolera’s lab in engineering genetic modifications in fruit flies to observe how those genetic changes affect mitophagy. By better understanding mitophagy, researchers could discover new methods to address conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and ischemia-reperfusion injuries.

 “We will perform genetic experiments to modify the process of mitophagy and examine the consequences on a cellular and physiological level,” said Insolera. “We’ll also use the award to train the next generation of scientists by supporting undergraduate, graduate and medical students in our lab.”

“R35 awards from the National Institutes of Health are awarded to researchers who have an outstanding record of research with great potential,” said Ezemenari M. Obasi, Ph.D., vice president for research & innovation at Wayne State University. “These awards allow them to pursue research that will address a knowledge gap and advance our scientific understanding in various areas that could lead to important breakthroughs. I look forward to the potential impact Dr. Insolera’s research will make and the important learning opportunities it will provide our students.”

The award number for this grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health is R35GM156765.

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About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

Wayne State University’s research efforts are dedicated to a prosperity agenda that betters the lives of our students, supports our faculty in pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation further, and strengthens the bonds that interconnect Wayne State and our community. To learn more about Wayne State University’s prosperity agenda, visit president.wayne.edu/prosperity-agenda.