# The Regulation of Polyploidy in Health and Disease

> **NIH NIH R35** · BOSTON COLLEGE · 2024 · $391,250

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Polyploidy frequently arises in response to injury, aging, and disease. Despite its prevalence, major gaps
exist in our understanding of how polyploid cells alter cell, tissue, and organ physiology. This is part because
polyploid cells are heterogeneous and arise in distinct ploidy states (mononucleated and multinucleated) with
each nucleus having varying sets of chromosomes. It is therefore hypothesized that the heterogeneity of ploidy
states provides cells with a vast repertoire of mechanisms for tissue growth, repair, and adaption to stress. Using
the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model my laboratory has identified the core cellular and genetic
mechanisms regulating polyploid cell growth in epithelial wound repair and aging as well as novel physiological
roles for polyploidy in resistance to genotoxic stress and enhancing tissue mechanics. Since mononucleated
and multinucleated cells arise in adult Drosophila epithelium in response to injury, similar to vertebrates, we can
determine how a cell’s ploidy state affects its cellular, tissue, and organ physiology and disease susceptibility.
The goals of this project are to 1) determine how ploidy state, both mononucleated and multinucleated epithelial
cells responds to and protect against UV-induced DNA damage and 2) elucidate how ploidy state alters a cell’s
actomyosin network to enhance epithelial tension and restore organ movement in the fruit fly post wound repair.
Doing so, will provide fundamental insights into the versatility of polyploidy and how a cell’s ploidy state impacts
human health and disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10783706
- **Project number:** 5R35GM124691-07
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** Vicki P Losick
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $391,250
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2028-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10783706

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10783706, The Regulation of Polyploidy in Health and Disease (5R35GM124691-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10783706. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*