Welcome to the "GeneLab Chats" series. In this brief interview style format, GeneLab speaks with authors of GeneLab-enabled publications to better understand the scope of their publication as well as how the GeneLab data system helped enabled their research. Read more information below about the publication highlighted in this series from Dr. Vidya Manian, from the University of Puerto Rico.
While it is well-noted that spaceflight conditions lead to muscle atrophy, exercise countermeasures alone are insufficient at preventing this condition. Other methods to treat muscle atrophy can include the use of medications but determining a well-suited drug can be time-consuming. A recent publication by Dr Vidya Manian, “Detection of Target Genes for Drug Repurposing to Treat Skeletal Muscle Atrophy in Mice Flown in Spaceflight,” based on the re-analysis of seven muscle transcriptomic datasets (OSD-21, OSD-99, OSD-101, OSD-103, OSD-104, OSD-111, and OSD-135), investigates the key genes involved in muscle atrophy and details the use of disease drug networks at selecting re-purposed medications as potential mitigation strategies. This work was funded by a NASA EPSCoR call for the reuse of GeneLab data. Dr. Manian is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering & Bioengineering at the University of Puerto Rico and is a contributing member of the GeneLab Analysis Working Group. This interview with GeneLab highlights how the GeneLab Data Systems and tools enabled Dr. Manian’s publication.
