Recently, the AB Nexus program announced its 2024 seed grant awards, recognizing interdisciplinary research teams from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The AB Nexus program fosters intercampus partnerships between scientists, engineers, and physicians to improve human health further. The 2024 AB Nexus awards include projects ranging from AI-optimized pacing for heart failure patients to investigating the health impacts of climate change on Colorado鈥檚 prison population. This year, seven teams received a total of $713,000 in funding for their projects.
Among the recipients is CU Boulder Physics Professor Meredith Betterton, who, alongside collaborator Jeffrey Moore from CU Anschutz, received funding for their project on tubulinopathies, genetic diseases that disrupt brain and nervous system development due to mutated tubulin proteins.
鈥淵ou can think of tubulin as being like a brick that is stacked next to other bricks to build a road (the microtubule),鈥� Betterton explained. 鈥淥ne of the puzzles about tublinopathies is that the mutation usually occurs in one tubulin gene out of many, so it affects only a minority (usually 25% or less) of the subunits. We aim to understand how a mutation in one small part of a tubulin gene can cause catastrophic defects at the cell and tissue level, ultimately impacting patients.鈥�
Betterton's and Moore鈥檚 research proposes that tubulin mutations influence structural changes in neighboring tubulins, amplifying the mutation's effects and creating serious health issues for individuals.
鈥淭his award is very exciting for my lab and me because it will provide seed funding for a new direction for our work,鈥� Betterton added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fantastic opportunity to potentially help people affected by these diseases.鈥�
Highlighting the collaborative nature of the project, Betterton emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary research: 鈥淲e will work with the Moore lab at CU Anschutz to conduct a combined experimental and theoretical study. This award is meaningful because it supports a new idea predicted by our theoretical work, now finding support in experiments. As a theoretical physicist, being able to predict an important new effect is something we all hope to do in our work.鈥�
The AB Nexus program continues cultivating a culture of collaboration and innovation at the University of Colorado. Its vision is to tackle the toughest challenges in human health through teamwork across diverse fields.
As Vice Chancellor Thomas Flaig noted in the award announcement: 鈥淪olving the toughest challenges in human health requires teamwork across a wide range of fields, and we鈥檙e very proud of how this program has helped to inspire so many new interdisciplinary research projects across our campuses.鈥�