Keith Baar, PhD - Project Lead
Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences
Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Medicine
kbaar@ucdavis.edu
530-752-3367
https://biology.ucdavis.edu/people/keith-baar

Prof Keith Baar is a molecular exercise physiologist with a specific interest in the response of the musculoskeletal system to nutrition and loading as a function of age. Prof Baar’s laboratory has made seminal discoveries in the molecular response of muscle to endurance and strength. These studies and others have shown the laboratory’s ability to generate, and maintain knockout mice and rats, study muscle, tendon and ligament function, measure molecular targets, and determine the functional outcomes of age, diet, and exercise.

Key Scientists: Suraj Pathak

Project Summary:
A decrease in mitochondrial mass and function in muscle and neurodegeneration are common complications of aging. Both of these conditions are linked to a decline in physical activity. Even though muscle and brain function are essential to health and quality of life, the molecular chain of events that lead to these devastating conditions and interventions, outside of life long exercise, that slow them remain poorly understood. We have recently shown that a long term ketogenic diet can prevent age-associated loss of muscle and brain function. Since interventions that improve muscle mitochondrial function improve brain function, the objective of this work is to determine whether a ketogenic diet increases enzymes that prevent a neurotoxin from reaching the brain.