Dr. Alicia Timme-Laragy, assistant professor of environmental health sciences in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, was recently chosen to participate in the Butler-Williams Scholars Program. The program, sponsored by the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA), is targeted for emerging researchers interested in the topic of aging. The NIA is one of the 27 institutes and centers in the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Timme-Laragy submitted a proposal to examine the role of a transcription factor called Nrf2 in healing wounds. Transcription factors are proteins that bind to specific DNA to control the flow of information to RNA. The study will use zebrafish to investigate the function of Nrf2 in aging and determine whether targeted activation of it can accelerate wound healing in aged fish.

“Impaired wound healing in the elderly presents a significant challenge to care-givers, and is a particular concern for individuals who are either bed-bound, are on anti-coagulant drugs, or suffer from diabetes,” she notes.

During the program Dr. Timme-Laragy will attend lectures and group discussions on research design, receive training in developing her research interests, and guidance on writing and submitting grants to the NIA. Dr. Timme-Laragy will join a group of 50 researchers at the program, which takes place from August 4-8 at the National Institutes of Health Campus in Bethesda, MD.