Chiara D’Ercole, a post-doctoral fellow in the Signalling pathways & striated muscles team led by Antoine Muchir, has been awarded the highly prestigious MSCA grant from the European Commission for her GLI-AGE project: Role of glial cells in age-related muscle sarcopenia and NMJ-disfunction. Interview with Chiara D’Ercole.
What is your background?
I defended my thesis on the role of glial cells in muscle denervation and atrophy last year at La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, and then I came here to start a post-doctoral fellowship under the supervision of Lorenzo Giordani, in Antoine Muchir’s team.
Can you tell us more about your research topic?
During the GLI-AGE project, we will be exploring the involvement of glial cells in sarcopenia* (muscle ageing) using a cutting-edge technique, HD Spatial Gene Expression technology (HD-ST), which combines high-resolution imaging and advanced sequencing to map the activity and interactions of glial cells in aged mice. We want to characterize the networks of glial cells directly in tissues and compare their distribution in aged muscles compared with young muscles. The aim is also to validate the regenerative potential of these cells by identifying molecular targets (in-vivo and in-vitro) that may be involved in the progression of sarcopenia.
The idea is to discover new therapeutic targets for preserving neuromuscular function and slowing the consequences of physiological ageing in the elderly. This could pave the way for innovative strategies to maintain muscle health and improve the quality of life of the elderly.
What will this grant mean for you?
Winning this grant is like a dream to me! I was surprised because I’m a very young researcher and I thought it was awarded to more experienced researchers, but it’s so prestigious! What’s more, Marie Curie is a researcher I admire, she made a huge contribution to the advancement of science. She’s one of my role models and, while I’m very proud to have won the scholarship, I’m even happier that it bears her name.
* While recent research has shown that certain glial cells present in muscle play a role in nerve regeneration by activating a neurotrophic programme (in response to nerve damage), their role in sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass and strength often linked to impaired nerve stimulation) has not yet been studied.
