Dr. Michelle Nguyen Expands Mitochondrial Aging Research Through Collaborative Training at UAB

Dr. Michelle Nguyen, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oklahoma Health Campus, recently traveled to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to expand her expertise in mitochondrial biology and aging research through a collaborative training experience.

Dr. Nguyen’s visit was made possible through funding from the UAB Nathan Shock Center and the Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center. During her time at UAB, Dr. Nguyen worked closely with experts in the field, including Dr. Gloria Benavides, Dr. Victor Darley-Usmar and Dr. Jianhua Zhang in the UAB Nathan Shock Center Comparative Mitochondrial Health Assessment Core.

“As an early career scientist, this experience was incredibly valuable because it gave me the opportunity to expand my technical skillset and my scientific perspective at a formative stage in my career,” Dr. Nguyen said. “I’m still in the process of refining my expertise in mitochondrial metabolism and defining the questions I want to pursue long term, so learning RIFS (Respirometry In Frozen Samples) through hands-on experience at the site of experts was impactful.”

Dr. Nguyen received both a UAB Nathan Shock Center Mini Sabbatical Award and a Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center Emerging Investigator Collaborative Training Award to support the opportunity. The collaboration between the Oklahoma and UAB Nathan Shock Centers allowed Dr. Nguyen to gain direct access to specialized training and mentorship while strengthening connections between the two centers.

Dr. Nguyen said that the most important insight she gained from this experience is that science rarely goes as planned on the first attempt. “If it does, make sure the results can be replicated! While fumbling experiments can feel like failure, it's a part of the process. Be resilient, think critically, it's going to be okay!”

During her time at UAB, Dr. Nguyen built on the results of her dissertation, which showed that mitochondrial haplotype affects plasma metabolome, lipidome and proteome in a sex dependent manner with age in OKC-HET rats. Her research uses RIFS measurements to assess mitochondrial function in previously frozen tissue samples, allowing researchers to examine changes in brain mitochondrial function in new ways.

By bringing together the expertise, resources and mentorship of multiple Nathan Shock Centers, this collaboration provided Dr. Nguyen with unique training opportunities while illustrating how cross-center partnerships strengthen aging research and prepare the next generation of geroscience investigators.