Photo: Bryan Goodchild
A UMass Chan Medical School scientist and postdoctoral fellow are two of 26 early career researchers to receive competitive awards from the American Federation for Aging Research and the Glenn Foundation.
Lina Marcela Carmona, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology, received a two-year, $150,000 award for her research studying the role of neuronal glycolysis in the aging motor circuit. Dr. Carmona is one of four recipients of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Grants for Junior Faculty. Nils Grotehans, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jessica Spinelli, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine, is one of 12 recipients of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Postdoctoral Fellowships in Aging Research. The $75,000 fellowship supports postdoctoral fellows who direct their research toward basic research mechanisms of aging and/or translational findings that have potential to directly benefit human health.
Carmona is studying the molecular mechanisms of motor skill acquisition and decay, aiming to understand the decrease in motor skills in older individuals and, specifically, why motor system neurons can’t support the relearning of motor skills as we age. Her lab focuses on cellular metabolism and examines glycolysis, a central metabolic pathway, and its contributions to motor behavior and learning in older adults.
“My lab works on motor learning, which is how you learn your motor skills. While most people think about motor skills in very young animals or humans—like learning to walk or talk, and all these basic motor skills that you pick up when you’re a child—it’s a process that you keep engaging in throughout your lifetime,” Carmona said.
“In an aged population, it’s particularly important because you can suffer an injury or you’re just adapting to your aging body, and you often need to relearn some of the basic motor skills,” she added. “The lab is focused on the molecular mechanisms that drive the learning process and we’re trying to determine how these motor skills might decay over age.”
Carmona grew up in New Jersey after moving to the United States from Columbia with her family when she was 6. She attended the University of Pennsylvania where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biology; she earned her PhD in immunobiology at Yale University and did her postdoctoral work at Columbia University in New York. She also received a three-year, $722,000 Research Transition Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in August.
Dr. Grotehans is studying a novel strategy to restore mitochondrial function in aging, building on Dr. Spinelli’s recent discovery of rhodoquinone as a fundamental electron transporter in the mammalian electron transport chain. Using the mass spectrometers in the Spinelli lab, Grotehans is exploring how this alternative energy pathway changes with age and whether activating it can restore mitochondrial health in older animal models.
Photo: Bryan Goodchild
“We’re studying which metabolites change over time with aging, with a specific focus on rhodoquinone to see if there’s an adaptation with age and if this adaptation might be beneficial to maintain mitochondrial function when cells and mitochondria age,” Grotehans said, adding that this research could lead to new ways to support healthy aging at the cellular level.
Grotehans earned his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany, before joining UMass Chan in 2024. He is the first postdoctoral fellow hired in the Spinelli lab.
The American Federation for Aging Research is a national nonprofit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research. The mission of the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research is to extend the healthy years of life through research on mechanisms of biology that govern normal human aging and its related physiological decline.
