AIMRC Seminar on Skeletal Muscle Epigenetics With Exercise and Aging

The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center will host Kevin Murach at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, in ENGR 209, where he will explore the intersection between skeletal muscle aging, exercise and epigenetics.

Skeletal muscle undergoes a variety of detrimental changes throughout the aging process that ultimately results in reduced muscle mass, function and quality of life. Exercise is the most effective countermeasure against age-mediated muscle dysfunction, with the benefits extending to the cellular and molecular levels. An epigenetic modification to DNA, called methylation, changes systematically throughout the lifespan and is reflective of the aging process. There is evidence to suggest that exercise reverses DNA methylation aging and age-associated gene expression in muscle, and that this may be controlled a specific exercise responsive "reprogramming" factor. 

Murach received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned the Ronald Hyatt Scholarship in Exercise Science. After graduating, Murach completed a master's degree in exercise physiology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and then earned his Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics from the Ball State Human Performance Laboratory in Muncie, Indiana. Murach spent six years as a post-doctoral fellow/scholar at the University of Kentucky Center for Muscle Biology in Lexington under the guidance of Drs. Charlotte Peterson and John McCarthy. During this time, he was supported by two National Institutes of Health grants (NIH F32 and K99). He is currently funded by the NIH, The American Federation for Aging Research and the Nathan Shock Center, specifically focusing on skeletal muscle, exercise and aging.   

The seminar presentation will be live in ENGR 209, and pizza will be served. Attendees are also welcome to join this presentation via Zoom.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Kimberley Fuller at fullerk@uark.edu.