Research extended

Clark Lindgren, Patricia A. Johnson Professor of Neuroscience and professor of biology, received a $419,767 grant from the National Institutes of Health through its Academic Research Enhancement Award program.

A renewal of a 2010 grant, the award allows Lindgren to continue studying chemical synapses, beginning in April this year.

Chemical synapses are places where nerve cells communicate with other nerve cells, or with muscle or gland cells. Lindgren will examine an example of a model synapse located between the nerve and the muscle, called the neuromuscular junction.

“In our lab, we believe that the neuromuscular junction is the most important synapse in animals,” Lindgren says. “You can have the best brain in the world, the most precise sensory mechanisms that allow you to spot danger or potential reward, but if you can’t get your muscles to move, you are in serious trouble.”

Lindgren’s research has clinical health implications. For example, his work contributes to understanding how neuromuscular junctions start to deteriorate over time, adding to the literature on neuromuscular junction diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.