Craige Lab
CRAIGE LAB RESEARCH OVERVIEW
You likely know that exercise helps prevent many diseases, but what signals drive this protection? The Craige Lab studies the signals behind exercise metabolism, focusing on skeletal muscle, liver, and bone. Our main interest is in short-lived molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which act as cellular messengers. Similar to a city's communication network during an emergency, ROS relay messages within and between cells, helping tissues adapt to stressors like exercise and diet.
CRAIGE LAB UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH INITIATIVE
Our lab prioritizes the integration of undergraduate students into our research program with the intention of providing tangible experience and unique training. In the context of a basic science lab with hands-on experiments, we accept a small number of students to our lab on a competitive basis. To expand opportunities further, we developed CURLS (CraigeLab Undergraduate Research and Leadership Series) with support from the Virginia Tech Office of Undergraduate Research. Using business project management strategies such as KanBan and Agile, CURLS aims to 1) provide leadership training to initiate student-led-mentoring 2) train students to think like scientists, and 3) foster a growth mindset.
JOINING THE CRAIGE LAB
The Craige Lab continually seeks highly motivated graduate and undergraduate students to join our team. While positions for undergraduates may be limited and often filled quickly, we always welcome inquiries from passionate individuals.
- Undergraduate Students: Contact Dr. Adele Addington at akadd90@vt.edu.
- Graduate Students: Contact Dr. Siobhan Craige at craigesm@vt.edu.
CRAIGE LAB FUNDING
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) R03: Endothelial Signaling in Exercise Metabolism
- NIAMS R56: Endothelial Reactive Oxygen Species in Exercise Metabolism
- Virginia Tech SJ Ritchey Research: Development of an undergraduate research project to investigate intercellular exercise signaling in cell culture.
- NIAMS K01: Reactive oxygen species drive muscle metabolism
- VT University Libraries Collaborative Research Grant: Developing a Canvas resource to promote undergraduate wet lab researcher success
- VT Office of Undergraduate Research Faculty Grant: Student-Led Team Approach to Gene and Protein Expression Investigations
- NIAMS F31 to graduate student Kalyn Specht (previous Craige Lab PhD student): NOX4 mediates the metabolic stress response in skeletal muscle
- Pre-doctoral American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to Kalyn Specht: NOX4 mediates mitochondrial remodeling in skeletal muscle
CURRENT CRAIGE LAB COLLABORATIONS:
Drake Lab: ROS and mitophagy
Tencerova Lab: NOX4 in bone health and metabolism
Bouzakri Group: Exerkines in interorgan crosstalk