麻豆app

You know that expression, dying of thirst? Well, a UNH researcher and mice who survive in the California desert with little to no water could possibly disprove that.

Matthew MacManes, assistant professor of genome-enabled biology, has received a five- year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will help him understand dehydration by studying the cactus mouse, a tiny desert rodent that鈥檚 adapted to survive both acute and chronic dehydration.

鈥淲e know that many people suffer from dehydration, from the elderly to soldiers in desert wars to the many people worldwide without access to clean water,鈥� MacManes says. 鈥淯nderstanding how mice survive dehydration may help us understand why humans don鈥檛 survive it and maybe how we could help them.鈥�

MacManes鈥檚 NIH Maximizing Investigators鈥� Research Award is for $1.7 million. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big award that鈥檚 going to support a lot of cool science,鈥� he says. With the grant, MacManes and his team will study the physiology and genomics of Peromyscus eremicus, both in the southern California desert and back at McManes鈥檚 UNH lab. MacManes is homing in on how the mice maintain blood pressure in their kidneys when they鈥檙e severely dehydrated, as kidney failure is a serious complication of dehydration in humans.

鈥淲hat if we could help soldiers, or other people who have to work in hot, dry environments, survive dehydration by feeding them a particular diet?鈥� MacManes says of his long- term goals. He says this work is particularly relevant in a changing climate that鈥檚 predicted to make much of the Earth, particularly North America, hotter and drier.