2017 — 2021 |
Morrison, Kathleen Elizabeth |
K99Activity Code Description: To support the initial phase of a Career/Research Transition award program that provides 1-2 years of mentored support for highly motivated, advanced postdoctoral research scientists. R00Activity Code Description: To support the second phase of a Career/Research Transition award program that provides 1 -3 years of independent research support (R00) contingent on securing an independent research position. Award recipients will be expected to compete successfully for independent R01 support from the NIH during the R00 research transition award period. |
Role of Hormonal State in Programming Effects of Peripubertal Stress in Females @ University of Maryland Baltimore
The training activities, research strategy, and career development activities outlined in this proposal are designed to enable the PI to meet the immediate career goal of gaining experience in epigenetic mechanisms of stress-induced neural reprogramming and neuroendocrinology, and to attain the skills, technical expertise, and career development necessary to succeed in the ultimate career goal of becoming an independent Principle Investigator. This research will help to build a foundation of knowledge for future success in developing translational animal models of stress susceptibility and attain the primary career objective of becoming a successful, independent Principal Investigator, focused on understanding neurobiology and behavior in complex systems that aim to more accurately represent a translationally relevant life experience. The PI is proposing a strategy consisting of coursework, professional development activities, and laboratory research under the guidance of the primary mentor, Dr. Tracy Bale and with guidance from the Advisory Committee. The skills and knowledge gained in the fields of epigenetics and neuroendocrinology are a critical foundation for the proposed work. All of the training will occur at the University of Pennsylvania, a world-renowned research institution with an incredible breadth of state of the art research facilities at my disposal. The proposed research will take place over the course of 5 years, while the training portion will largely take place during Years 1 and 2. Both clinical and animal studies have suggested that females may be more susceptible to stress during puberty. However, the mechanisms underlying these findings are very poorly understood. We have developed a novel peripubertal stress model that enables the examination of both the consequences of peripubertal stress and how that experience interacts with later times of hormonal change, such as pregnancy. In this model, peripubertal stress produces a disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to acute stress only during pregnancy. Exciting preliminary data implicate long-term epigenetic changes to the PVN that interact with the unique neuroendocrine milieu of pregnancy to elicit stress dysregulation. Based on these data, we hypothesize that stress dysregulation during pregnancy results from an interaction of pubertal stress reprogramming of the PVN with pregnancy-related increases in allopregnanolone, and that this dysregulation represents an underlying factor that increases disease risk. Three Specific Aims will address this hypothesis by determining the mechanism by which peripuberty stress-induced alterations in the PVN GABA system are due to stable chromatin modifications (Aim 1), how allopregnanolone within the PVN facilitates the blunted HPA axis response in peripubertally stressed females (Aim 2), and the long-term consequences of a subsequent ?second hit? stressor experienced during pregnancy (Aim 3).
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0.951 |
2021 — 2025 |
Morrison, Kathleen Hill, Austin Rowan, Yorke |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Infrastructure and Subsistence Strategies in the Context of Long Term Land Use @ University of Pennsylvania
This project investigates the social and economic role of ancient animal hunting traps known as "desert kites" during a time of dramatic changing land use, human migrations, and shifting economies. Located in a hyper-arid, basaltic desert, these structures were built as mass-kill traps for ungulates in the later prehistory of the region. Each chain includes dozens to hundreds of individual traps, spanning tens of kilometers, linked by intricate wall networks that functioned to create one enormous system. These represent a remarkable ancient infrastructural investment in labor, significant social organization, and the ability to generate subsistence surpluses in a marginal environment. This new study of desert kites, in context, focuses on the economy of this desert infrastructure and the social organization of large-scale prey-manipulation strategies, to offer new insight into subsistence adaptations in marginal environments. The results from this research have the potential to transform knowledge of human responses and adaptations to arid environments in prehistory.
The research examines human land-use in a critical and understudied period of prehistory in order to document overlooked instances of significant anthropogenic landscape transformation and assesses the potential long-term impact on climate and environment. To address these issues, the investigators integrate remote sensing data, including historic satellite and aerial imagery, modern high resolution satellite imagery, and 3D data from low-elevation drone photography for landscape-scale mapping and analysis of ancient features. This combination of remote sensing data sources provides time depth for changing landscape conditions in the present, 3D data for topographic reconstructions, and broad-scale coverage across a large survey area. The remote sensing analysis is complemented by intensive excavations of kites and associated structures while the analysis of animal remains and artifacts provide a clear picture of how massive-kill traps were used as a crucial subsistence technology that reflects broad regional cooperation. By revealing nuanced insights into settlement and land use patterns, herding versus hunting strategies, building traditions, and exchange with different regions, this research begins to demonstrate the network people established beyond well-studied agriculture zones. These new strategies, land use patterns and settlements underscore a vital new social network that has been invisible up until now and will facilitate comparative analyses across the larger arid environmental regions.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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0.915 |