Home Department: Physics
Mentors: Jill Helms (Surgery - Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery) and Katrin Andreasson (Neurology & Neurological Sciences)

“A Study of TREM-1’s Inflammatory Effects”

The goal of this project is to understand the role of chronic inflammation in aging by genetically inactivating a gene (TREM-1) that is believed to lead to the release of pro-inflammatory proteins in a mouse model. Michael’s work builds upon preliminary results that suggest these mice have reduced amounts of immune cells. He will take an interdisciplinary approach by developing a new tissue staining protocol which can be combined with other imaging techniques like MicroCT scans to study bone structure and finally using statistical analysis to find significant differences between the disease model and regular mice.