Vicki P. Losick, Ph.D., Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (IMAGE)
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Vicki P. Losick, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has been recognized as an "outstanding investigator" by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, an institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for her research on wound healing. The designation carries a grant award in the amount of about $348,000 per year for five years, or a total of about $1.7 million. The grant will support Losick's research on the regulation of polyploidization in wound repair. Polyploidization is a mechanism that supports cell enlargement by duplicating chromosome number. A key step in healing is the replacement of cells that have been lost or damaged by injury or disease. Previously, the body was thought to achieve this primarily through cell division, or increasing the number of cells. However, Losick has identified polyploidy, or cell enlargement, as a common element in the body's healing arsenal, and has demonstrated the benefits of this alternative repair strategy. Losick's research has implications beyond wound healing, however, since polyploid cell growth is also associated with cancer and other degenerative diseases, including heart and liver diseases. Her goal is to identify the factors that regulate the creation of these extra-large cells in order to promote a beneficial response and to limit the degenerative consequences. Her research is conducted in the fruit fly, Drosophila, one of the diverse animal models used to study genetic regulation of tissue repair, regeneration and aging at the MDI Biological Laboratory.
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MDI Biological Laboratory
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